The memo says some services and procedures will be put on hold while others will face a significant reduction and increases in wait times.
d’Entremont says it affects basic services like CT scans, MRI’s, ultrasounds and mammogram’s.
“All of those things that we require for our daily health well being in our area will not be able to be done in a timely manner because of the shortage of those radiologists. What I see in that letter is an admission of a failing health system that is unable to recruit the proper kind of specialties. I don’t think the health authority has a handle on recruitment. Also, when one (radiologist) leaves, the other does not want to work that extra shift. There is some lifestyle issues here, so when you have a service with only three people in it that should have seven, you have to work many extra hours and people aren’t willing to do that.””
He also worries how this might affect the effort to have a radiation unit located in Yarmouth.
“I think this will create a challenge for it because of course we would need to have a full-service hospital. We need to have all the specialties available to us in order to have that radiation oncology. But I’m hoping that within Dr. Bethune’s study that’s he’s looking at all of those aspects.”
(Dr. Drew Bethune is medical director of the province’s cancer care program)
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Nova Scotia Health Authority says there are a number of sites that are experiencing shortages and the most significant one is in Yarmouth.
Susan Delaney is the Senior Director of Diagnostic Imaging for the health authority.
She says dedicated recruiters have been working actively to try and attract radiologists to this area.
“We do have a number of sites that are experiencing shortages. certainly the most significant one is in Yarmouth. We’ve been aware of it for probably a year or more. We’ve had a couple of radiologists retire. We’ve been actively working on recruiting. We have dedicated recruiters who have been working on trying to encourage radiologists to locate to the community of Yarmouth. We’ve been successful I would like to think. We have one full-time person starting mid-August and we have one full-time person that’s staring in mid-September and that person will be here for a year. We have an arrangement with radiologists at the QE 2 and in the Valley that they will provide support, as required, remotely. Unfortunately there may be some delays over the next month. We have vacations coming up. We’re working very hard to minimize it. We are not trying to minimize the impact on the community in any way, shape or form. The radiologists that are there are working hard and are very dedicated to the community.”
