TORONTO -- A new private Toronto cancer clinic set to open next month aims to complement -- not compete with -- the public health-care system and isn't breaking any laws, says the clinic's medical director.

The clinic, being set up by a group of doctors, will only offer drugs to cancer patients that Ontario hasn't yet approved for coverage by its health plan, said oncologist Dr. Peter Anglin.

"There's no violation of any (rules); we're offering a service that is in keeping with the delivery of health-care services outside of a hospital," Anglin said Friday.

"This is something that's complementary to the public system. We're not competing in any way with the public system."

The Provis Clinic, set to open in mid-August, will offer cancer patients access to expensive, cutting-edge cancer medications that are approved by Health Canada but not yet covered by Ontario's health plan. Patients would have to be referred to the clinic by their oncologist.

Health Minister George Smitherman said earlier this week he doesn't have enough information about the clinic yet to judge whether it might contravene any of Ontario's health laws.

But Smitherman said he doesn't want the result to be "pocketbook medicine," where patients pay for faster access and for services already covered by the health system.

Anglin insisted the clinic "will not be billing any redundant services."

"We're not giving second opinions by any means," he said. "We're simply offering a quality infusion service of a select number of drugs."

Some cancer patients in Ontario have been forced to travel to the U.S. to get medications simply because they aren't available here since they're not yet covered by the province's health system, Anglin said.

Patients understand that high costs mean not all medications can immediately be funded under the province's plan, but they want access to these potentially life-saving or life-lengthening drugs right away, even if they have to pay for them, Anglin said.

"This gives them a choice to have that therapy closer to home at less cost until it's offered in the public system," he said.

"If you can call that a necessity, then I would."

If a drug offered by the clinic -- such as Herceptin or Velcade -- is subsequently approved for coverage under the province's drug plan, then the clinic would cease to provide it, Anglin said.

Likewise, new drugs on the market that prove effective could be brought into the clinic while the province does its rigorous evaluation as to whether tax dollars should be spent covering that medicine under the province's plan, he said.

"I think this is something that's here to stay in terms of problems of funding every available drug," Anglin said.

"The pie isn't growing as fast as the drugs coming up the pipeline. That's where the catch is."

Most cancer patients are able to get the best drugs for their treatment through Ontario's health plan, Anglin stressed, and it's only a "relatively small portion of cancer patients" that need access to these specialized medicines.

But the establishment of a clinic like this in Ontario doesn't mean the government can drag its heels on making timely decisions about which drugs should get coverage, Anglin said.

"This can't be seen as a stop valve to relieve the pressure on what drugs need to be funded in the public system."