Provinces call for national strategy to deal with nationwide shortage of cancer specialists
A looming medical crisis created by the resignations of a team of Newfoundland oncologists is prompting urgent calls from other provinces for a national strategy to deal with the cross-country shortage of cervical and ovarian cancer specialists.
The gynecologic oncologists are the only three practising in Newfoundland, and their promised departure, effective Oct. 7, will leave 1,200 patients without immediate access to treatment.
Canada has only about 60 gynecologic oncologists, a highly specialized field within cancer care. Promises by Newfoundland’s Health Minister to airlift displaced patients to other areas for treatment have alarmed other cancer centres, which say they’re too swamped to handle an influx of patients.
“Accommodating more patients would be difficult. We already deal with patients from New Brunswick and PEI,” said James Bentley, acting head in the division of gynecologic oncology at the Capital District Health Authority in Halifax, one of the largest health networks in Atlantic Canada. “Most places, ourselves included, are running at tolerable maximum levels to achieve that [patient care], and we don’t have a lot of flexibility.”
If Newfoundland’s government doesn’t take steps to keep its gynecologic oncology team on the job, the void created by the loss will likely be felt for months, given the small number of trained specialists available, Dr. Bentley said.
“There’s nobody hanging around out there waiting for a job. There’s no one unemployed as a gynecologic oncologist,” he said.
“It’s often challenging to get people to come to smaller provinces.”
But even if the crisis is resolved before October’s deadline, problems facing the specialized field won’t soon go away, several of the country’s top specialists and other experts in the field warn.
Newfoundland’s problems are a symptom of a countrywide epidemic of shortages and inadequate resources that may be making it difficult for cervical and ovarian cancer patients across Canada to have access to the necessary treatment.
“There is a human resource crisis in our specialty all across Canada,” said André Lalonde, executive vice-president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada. “This [problem] has been in Newfoundland, but it may happen in other provinces.
“We anticipate that unless this issue is addressed and there’s a framework in the federal scene, that we’re going to see this more and more. You can’t just address this province-by-province.”
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I think it is important to remember that a large part of this ‘crisis’ comes from the fact that the doctor’s protesting were left out of a large salary settlement with other oncologists, so this is really a way of the doctor’s “striking”.
How many royal commissions on health care have Canadians paid for in recent years? Enough is enough, governments need to act.