A Newfoundland oncologist said she was not bluffing when she and two of her colleagues said they would resign if more resources were not allocated to their jobs.
Dr. Patti Power told Canada AM Friday that their resignation comes after years of trying to give patients adequate care, she said.
"This is a result of many years of frustration in trying to move forward with trying to provide our patients with treatment options, access to innovative surgeries, access to clinical trials," she said. "As more research becomes available across the country, our colleagues moved forward but you know we're just having these increasing frustrations with getting these new treatment options off the ground in Newfoundland."
News of the resignations came less than a month after another medical scandal in the province involving botched breast cancer tests and misdiagnoses.
The three gynecological oncologists are the only three cancer specialists in the field in the entire province. Their resignation would mean about 1,500 women in Newfoundland and Labrador looking elsewhere for treatement.
Statistics show that cervical cancer rates in the province are the highest in Canada.
The government has said they will airlift patients out of the province for care but the president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association said that is not a good solution.
"For cancer patients this is definitely not the answer," said Dr. Elizabeth Callahan in an interview with Canada AM. "These people are going through a very vulnerable time in their lives, they need their support system. We certainly want these patients to be dealt with on home territory. That's certainly the most important thing for them."
Callahan said there are only 50 doctors in Canada who work in this special field and that having three of them resign leaves a gaping hole in the quality of cancer care, especially in Newfoundland.
"To recruit to an area where these specialists are among the lowest paid in Canada is going to be very difficult under those circumstances," she said.
Power said the low pay is just one of many complaints doctors have.
"Certainly it's part of our frustration, it's not our primary frustration but it certainly doesn't make us feel any better being the lowest-paid physicians of our group in the country. It's just another added low.
She said the hardest part will be saying goodbye to families that have come to depend on the oncologists for support. Power said that the doctors have become close to the patients and have gotten to know them and their families "extremely well."
"It's going to be devastating," she said. "They're already a very vulnerable population. It was an extremely difficult decision for us to come to and I really hope that we can get it resolved.
If a resolution is reached, Power said she would be glad to take her job back. She doesn't want to leave, she said but unless some resource issues are addressed, it's a step she and her colleagues are prepared to take.
She said the oncologists plan on either working on different career paths or moving across the country to a province with greater government support to continue their work.
