It appears hundreds of Islanders being treated for various forms of cancer could soon be heading off the Island for treatment.
Dr. Richard Wedge, acting CEO of Health P.E.I., said Thursday oncologist Dr. Dagney Dryer is retiring at end of March.
That will leave the province with Dr. Philip Champion as its lone oncologist. The province lost the other oncologist it had in 2011 when the doctor chose to move back to the Middle East.
"We were notified that one of our oncologists wants to retire and that's fine,'' Wedge said. "She (Dryer) has been with us a long time.''
Usually government has three oncologists working between the Cancer Treatment Centre at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown and the satellite centre at the Prince County Hospital in Summerside.
It's government's job is recruit, which Wedge says it has been doing. Health P.E.I.'s job is to run and manage the system.
Locums, or temporary physicians, have been utilized a month here or there so far to fill the gap left by the oncologist who left in 2011.
"We have one person who is in training now whose thinking about staying in the spring when she writes her exams. We're hoping to have two by the time Dr. Dryer retires or maybe even three for a month or so and be back up to full (complement).''
Wedge says Champion is doing all he can with his patients but "anybody else who needs care is going to have to go outside P.E.I. for care. Not sure of the exact numbers but I would venture to guess it's probably a few hundred people.''
The province still employs two radiation oncologists but it's the medical oncologists such as Dryer and Champion who can prescribe treatment such as chemotherapy.
Lori Barker, executive director with the P.E.I. division of the Canadian Cancer Society, said staff at the Cancer Treatment Centre is stretched thin as it is.
"Moving forward our biggest concern is at some point are people going to have to start going off because it's simply not sustainable (to continue with) what the team has been doing?'' Barker said. "There's concern, even for Dr. Champion. I mean, how much pressure and how can long can someone work? That's a lot of pressure to put on one person.''
Adding to the concern is the fact that P.E.I. has the highest cancer incidents rate among men and the highest cancer mortality rate among women in the country.
"That's pretty scary. We really want to ensure Health P.E.I. is putting sufficient resources in place to direct staff.''
Barker said it's high time government comes up with a comprehensive strategy to deal with the challenges it is facing.
Wedge said they'll be trying to accommodate patients as best they can.
"Our preference is to have them treated as close to P.E.I. as possible but, otherwise, we want to make sure they receive treatment so we do agreements with our neighbouring provinces.''
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