MUD CREEK MEDICAL

Co-operative Ltd.
William Doran, MD Janet MacNaughton, MD Peter Segato, MD Ramon Salazar, MD Andrea Mossman, MD Kanchanamala Sundararajan, Robin Whidden, RN Krista Schofield, RN Jill Morse, RN 12 E Elm Avenue W olfville, N.S. B4P 1Z9 Tel: Fax: (902) 542-3633 (902) 542-2709

MD

Mr. Bedard, Thank you for your e-mail regarding an on camera interview. Mud Creek Medical Co-operative is a group of health care providers. We provide primary care to patients in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia. We are, as are all health care providers in Canada, accredited and guided by and responsible to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia. We are in good standing with the College and have not been disciplined for any reason within that system. There are no pending investigations or any other blemish on our records as members of the College. If you have information of malpractice or breaches of public safety, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia is the body that deals with such allegations. If you have evidence of fraudulent or criminal activity on the part of self identified patients of Mud Creek Medical Co-operative, law enforcement will advise you if criminal proceedings are warranted against those patients. Mud Creek supports and follows all national and provincial guidelines regarding the proper prescribing of all substances including opioids. We endorse and follow Prescription Monitoring Program standards and guidelines. We enter into contractual agreements with patients that do not allow multiple prescribers. The Prescription Monitoring Program reviews our patients opiate prescription profiles weekly. Any evidence of multiple prescribers is passed back to Mud Creek providers to be dealt with according to standards and guidelines. Mud Creek Medical Co-operative does not endorse efforts to discuss and resolve allegations of serious wrong doing by doctors outside of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia tribunals as set down in law. Such allegations should not be investigated and judged by politicians, members of the public nor by CTV W5. There is a narrative behind the events you are following in the Annapolis Valley. It is not one of criminal or improper medical treatments. It is a story of practitioners, for the first time in the Valley, providing high quality treatment for opiate addiction and chronic non-malignant pain to patients

suffering from these deadly and life diminishing disorders. These services are available routinely in the rest of Canada but were previously not available here. It is the story of Mud Creek practitioners becoming recognized by their peers as local experts in addiction and pain management and receiving scores or hundreds of referrals from those peers to provide advice on the care of their patients with these disorders. It is a story of practitioners advocating for expanded and improved services for addicted patients throughout Nova Scotia. It is the story, in 2010, of Mud Creek Medical Co-operative bringing to the Annapolis Valley the first training program ever for Nova Scotia for doctors wishing to provide methadone maintenance to their own patients. It is the story of Mud Creek causing the adoption of the first ever Nova Scotia College of Physicians and Surgeons guidelines for physicians who wish to provide methadone maintenance. It is the story of Mud Creek Medical physicians being active and engaged in provincial and national committees, Medical Societies and medical communities of practice to improve the access to and quality of care for patients with addiction and chronic pain. It is the story of Mud Creek practitioners joining with the Annapolis Valley District Health Authority to start the first AVDHA opiate replacement treatment program and to support the establishment of a broad based community advisory board for input into that program. This opiate replacement program has received national recognition as a leading edge practice. Addiction Medicine textbooks describe the typical furor that is experienced in communities exposed for the first time to methadone maintenance programs close to home. There is criticism by the uninformed. They theorize that addiction treatment programs enable addiction, not treat it. Law enforcement has concerns about another type of opiate in town. Pharmacists and physicians worry about a new and unfamiliar treatment that brings addiction patients, who were previously marginalized, into their offices for care. What will the other patients think? Will they go elsewhere? In the interest of full and accurate reporting we at Mud Creek Medical Co-operative hope and trust that you will confirm this narrative and balance it against the politician and concerned members of the public who offer a different view. Sincerely, William Doran, MD.