'Major crisis' facing P.E.I. blood cancer patients as another oncologist prepares to leave

With P.E.I's only full-time blood oncologist leaving at the end of November, Health P.E.I. was planning to transfer his patients to Dr. Philip Champion, but now Champion says he intends to retire in the spring.

P.E.I.'s only oncologist specifically trained in that field, Dr. Pierre Whitlock, is leaving Health P.E.I. at the end of November.Champion is now the only doctor left on P.E.I. with experience treating blood diseases and cancers.

"I'm anticipating fully retiring in the next year, depending a little bit on the details of how we do with replacing doctors," Champion told CBC News."Alot of logistics need to be worked out in a hurry to be able to avoid interruptions of people's chemotherapy for sure."

Last month, Health P.E.I. said current blood cancer patients would be taken care of on the Island, but new patients would potentially need to travel off-Island to get a treatment plan.

That's still the case for now. But if Health P.E.I. can't find a hematologist before both doctors leave, there will be no one on P.E.I. to treat new blood cancer patients.

Champion said he will consider working part time, but that won't be enough to look after all P.E.I.'s blood cancer patients.

"We still have a major crisis if I cut back at all," he said.

Odds rising that blood cancer patients will need off-Island care as another oncologist plans to exit

2 days ago

Duration 2:14

With P.E.I's only blood oncologist leaving at the end of November, Health P.E.I. was planning to transfer his patient to Dr. Philip Champion. As CBC's Sheehan Desjardins reports, now Champion says he intends to retire in the spring.

Islanders will have to travel

"It's unfortunate that there are two, kind of in a row," said Dr. Richard Wedge, Health P.E.I.'s acting chief medical officer.

He said Health P.E.I. is actively recruiting to replace both of those doctors, and is also trying to attract locum or temporary blood oncologists.

Wedge said that over the winter, before Champion retires, eight to 10 blood cancer patients per month will have to travel to receive assessment and treatment plans in Moncton or Halifax. He said most of those patients will be able to receive their actual treatment on P.E.I.

"Until we have another hematologist oncologist, they'll continue to travel off-Island." Wedge said.

When Champion does retire, the patients he took over from Whitlock will have to travel off-Island, Wedge said. His current oncology patients will be assigned to other oncologists on P.E.I.

"We're certainly doing our best to ensure there is a path to a timely treatment program, and our neighbouring provinces are being very co-operative in terms of trying to make sure that they have capacity and understand our needs Our ultimate goal is to return the services to P.E.I. so [patients] don't have to travel," said Wedge.

Recruitment process underway

Health P.E.I. says there are currently two radiation oncologists and two medical oncologists on the Island, and it is in the process of recruiting two more medical oncologistsdoctors who treat cancers other than blood diseases. Those two doctors, who are still in training, are poised to arrive next year, Wedge said.

But leukemia, lymphoma and other blood diseases are usually treated by hematologists, which Champion points out is a separate specialty.

"There used to be a lot of doctors who did both," said Champion, who is one such versatile medical oncologist. "As both jobs become more complex and busy, we're not going to find doctors in the future who do both... Especially for small communities where we have to kind of dabble in everything, it makes it much more challenging to have the right people to provide both services."

Champion said with changes at the top in Health P.E.I.'s bureaucracy, and what he believes is some confusion by Health P.E.I. over which doctors are qualified to treat blood cancers versus solid tumours, the ad for a replacement forWhitlock "has not been posted correctly yet, to find another hematologist."

He added there aren't many of those specialists in Canada, especially those who would want to come "to a small place like P.E.I. We'd almost have to find twoto make it a manageable situation."

He added: "We do not have any prospects at all for [a doctor to treat] the hematology cancers."

Islanders 'spoiled' by proximity to services

Champion notes the volume of cancer patients keeps growing, as treatments vastly improve and patients live longer than previously.

"We have a lot more to offer but that means a lot more patients coming to our clinic so we need more doctors, essentially," he said.

Champion said patients in other provinces often travel long distances to cancer treatment centres, and Islanders have been "spoiled" somewhat by their proximity to treatment.

"Islanders will have to drive farther, like other people in the country do," he said.

3 new specialist physicians hired

Meanwhile, Health P.E.I. announced the hiring of three new specialist physicians in a news release Tuesday afternoon.

A neurologist, slated to startin early December 2024; apsychiatrist to startin mid-December; and aradiologiststarting in July of 2025. According to the news release, this brings the total number of confirmed hires this year to 35.

Health P.E.I. credits reducing the number of steps required to hire new doctors and recent regulatory changesthat allow a streamlined process for family physicians who trained in the U.S., the UK, Ireland and Australia with speeding up the recruitment process.