VICTORIA (CP- August 09, 2000) - Someone will die if the Montreux clinic for eating disorders is not closed at once, the Capital health region says in a report filed in B.C. Supreme Court. "Like playing Russian roulette, it is only a matter of time before you may have a dead body," it said. "Even one more day of Montreux operating is unacceptable. Montreux must be shut down."

      The report is included in a petition filed Tuesday asking the court to immediately close the controversial private clinic that treats sufferers of anorexia and bulimia.    The legal challenge is unfortunate, clinic lawyer Chris Considine said in a statement released late Tuesday afternoon.

      The provincial director of licensing has already conducted a thorough review of the clinic, he said.    The director had an independent review by John Noble, a former deputy health minister, "who is regarded as one of the outstanding experts in British Columbia in the field of community care and the Community Care Act," Considine said.

      No one as died during the seven years the clinic has operated, he said.   The court petition is a request for a judicial review of a provincial government decision by director of licensing Kersteen Johnston that allowed the clinic to remain open, at least temporarily.

      In that decision, released this week, Johnston said Montreux "is proceeding as well as it can to ensure that risk to the health and safety of its clients are minimized.  I do not believe that there is currently an actual serious risk to the health and safety of persons in care at the Montreux facility," she said.

      Removing any potential for risk to patients is impossible, Johnston said. "Limiting the likelihood of risk is attainable."      A Health Ministry spokeswoman said Tuesday there would be no provincial government comment on the health region's petition.

      Montreux clinic founder Peggy Claude-Pierre has gone from winning acclaim from the influential American TV talk-show host Oprah Winfrey to facing a battle with Victoria health authorities to remain operating.    Claude-Pierre and her husband David Harris operate the nine-bed clinic from two city mansions and charge some clients as much as $1,000 a day.

      Claude-Pierre has also written a book on anorexia which she has said has been translated into 15 languages.    But trouble began in 1997 with an employee who turned whistle-blower and complained about the clinic.   The first complaint drew attention to what the Capital health region decided were breaches of the Community Care Facility Act and the Adult Care Regulations, including force-feeding patients and errors with medication.

      But in June 1997, Dr. Richard Stanwick, regional medical health officer, allowed the clinic to continue provided it corrected the problems.    In September 1998, however, a second investigation by the Capital Health Region revealed continuing problems.

      The following year, Stanwick held a 26-day hearing which resulted in his report saying the clinic had committed serious violations of health standards.    He ordered its licence revoked and the clinic closed effective Jan. 31, 2000.    Montreux appealed to the provincial Community Care Facility Appeal Board. That appeal is scheduled for Nov. 27.