Medicine Hat losing its oncologist

By Gillian Slade on May 30, 2019.

gslade@medicinehatnews.com
@MHNGillianSlade

Alberta Health Services says Medicine Hat Regional Hospital will soon be without an oncologist and it could be difficult to find a replacement.

The current oncologist at the Margery E. Yuill Cancer Centre, Dr. Soundouss Raissouni, will be leaving at the end of June, said Dr. Dean Ruether, medical director community oncology AHS, who is based in Calgary.

There is no replacement yet, said Ruether.

“We will have coverage through visiting medical oncologists from Calgary who are already going to Medicine Hat regularly to help out,” said Ruether.

A locum medical oncologist will be starting in July at the clinic three days a week plus another physician who regularly visits from Calgary.

Ruether says he is aware of the patients’ preference to have a regular oncologist who knows them.

“Consistency in terms of the care providers you’re dealing with is very important in regards to the quality of care and it is certainly our desire to have the same person involved in the patient’s consultation and care and follow-up,” said Ruether.

There are challenges finding an oncologist to practise in Medicine Hat where there are not the same research opportunities as a university hospital, said Ruether. It is also challenging at the moment to find oncologists for any hospital.

“There are unfilled positions for medical oncologists across the country,” said Ruether. 

There are more cancer patients, patients doing better and living for longer and that means they need to be seen regularly and their issues managed, said Ruether. There are also new cancer centres opening up beyond Alberta attracting more oncologists.

AHS is looking outside of Canada for oncologists but they need to meet certain criteria, in terms of quality of training, to practise here, said Reuther. They may need to take certain exams here to meet the qualification requirements. If eligible some may need six months of supervised assessment before being licensed here.

“It is a laborious and sometimes a lengthy process,” said Reuther.

Candidates from some countries are more likely to have had training that is considered similar to Canada’s, said Ruether. 

“If we were recruiting a physician from the U.K. or Australia or the U.S. there would still be some hoops to jump through, but we’re probably pretty satisfied with the quality and the type of training being similar to what we offer in Canada,” said Ruether. “If you’re coming from Asia or the Middle East their programs can be quite different than ours … and more time consuming to assess the individual’s training.”

While many doctors from outside of Canada helped to fill the gap when Alberta was short of family doctors it is more complicated for specialists. Ruether says the pool of specialists to draw on is smaller than that of family doctors.

Raissouni had been on a year’s maternity leave from November 2017.

18
-17