Darlene Gray, Director of OCATS (Ovarian Cancer Awareness & Treatment in Sask) said, "This is the news we have been anticipating and dreading, the very situation we alerted the Minister of Health of and had hoped the Ministry would provide the leadership and resources to prevent. Gynecologic cancer patients, ovarian cancer patients in particular who face a very low survival rate, are dependent on these specialists - for us it's a matter of life and death. Now the burdeon in southern Saskatchewan rests on the shoulders of one doctor, creating even more delicate working conditions."

Gynecologic oncologists, as women's specialized care providers, remain an internationally accepted and indisputable fact and yet we are faced with a situation where these widely sought specialists are not retainable in Regina. Gray said, "The public should be very concerned about this severe situation in the delivery of, or lack of, cancer care in Saskatchewan. The lack of attention to patients' voices is equally disturbing. The public needs to be asking why and to be asking it now."

This development should not come as a surprise as doctors and patients having been seeking leadership from the Ministry of Health over the past 2 years. The Sask Cancer Agency also received several requests for proper nursing support. The Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region was requested to provide appropriate hospital space for the gynecologic oncologists. Last spring Dr. Brydon and OCATS advised the public that gynecologic oncology treatment could not continue under the current substandard working conditions. Simple solutions presented were unheeded and no department or agency or group acted on behalf of the patients in Saskatchewan. "After all our Survivors' work it's difficult to witness Dr. Brydon's departure when it could have been so easily avoided," Gray said.

To prepare for her departure Dr. Brydon has taken on other contractual assignments and maintains a one-day a week contract with the Allan Blair Cancer Centre, which will allow her to continue care for existing patients requiring surgery or therapy. However, the majority of new patients formally referred to two specialists must now be referred to only one. Gray said, "We wonder if patients can not be seen in a timely fashion by the remaining specialist, will they have to travel to Saskatoon? We wonder if patients cannot be seen in a timely fashion in Saskatoon, will they be sent out of province? We fear that the recruitment of a replacement doctor is in jeopardy because the working conditions have now worsened," Gray said.

OCATS is asking for four simple inexpensive actions to be taken immediately:

1. funding directly to the remaining gyne onc to hire proper nursing support

2. office/examination space at the RGH for the remaining gyne onc

3. change outdated SaskHealth policy to read "hysterectomies for cancer surgery are performed by gynecologic oncologists" (rather than "gynecologists" as it now states).

4. assign a COMMUNICATOR the working conditions and program development issues to keep all parties and individuals involved on tract, working towards an end date and accountable.  This includes the gyne oncs, administrators, agencies, departments, regions and the Ministry.

If you want to support this please send your letter to the Minister of Health, Don McMorris, Rm 302, Leg Bldg 2405 Legislative Drive, Regina, SK S4S 0B3, 787-7345,

Comments

Letter to Editor, LP Written by Darlene on 2010-04-12 12:14:13 Dear Editor:  We want to thank Pam Cowan for an excellent article about Dr. Brydon, Regina Gynecologic Oncologist being forced to walk away from her practice (LP, Apr 9/10) but what a crying shame to see this happen after two years of educating the Ministry of Health about the risk of losing this specialist so needed for gyne cancer patients in Southern Sask. We must ask again, why is Sask having such a difficult time retaining cancer specialists? In the various reasons for Dr. Brydon’s physical and emotional frustration the brutal winter weather was never mentioned. It would have been so easy and inexpensive to have prevented this office closure. Some oncology nursing support, some in-hospital office space, some ownership by the Ministry of the problem in Saskatchewan with the delivery of gyne cancer care. It’s not so complicated and it has been dealt with very well in all other jurisdictions in Canada. Why is Sask willing to let women’s lives hang in the balance doing more study and design with no clear objectives and date for completion, while great examples for a gyne onc program are all around us?    Ms. Jordon of SaskHealth is quoted in the article as stating that while the RQHR recruits a gyne oncologist “referrals will be made to other providers such as gynecologists”! This is alarming. Gynecologists in Sask are great at what they do, but they are not trained, experienced or necessarily have the skills to tenderly lift up vital organs and scrape cancer cells away, remove organs from the abdomen and do a thorough search for lurking cancer cells. One of the most challenging parts of a hysterectomy performed for a patient suspected of having cancer can be the cutting away of cancer cells that have attached to the bowels. This can mean life or death right on the operating table if not done perfectly. If Dr. Brydon feels her skills aren’t up to par, what is the chance that a regular gynecologist can replace her? This is a tragedy for the women of Saskatchewan. It seems delivery of Sask gyne cancer care is going backwards.    Also backward is Jordon’s stated aim to “coordinate care for women and provide information about services, but not to set up a physical unit”. This flies in the face of proper standard gyne cancer care delivery, hardly a recruitment strategy to lure skilled gyne oncologists to Saskatchewan. It’s not like no one knows – about a year ago a mentor in the delivery of gyne cancer care, Dr. Ehlan, from the BC Cancer Centre was in Saskatchewan doing a presentation on an excellent program in BC. This is just one piece of information provided to SaskHealth.    We’re also very curious about Jordan’s interpretation of patients’ input in the Patient First Review. I guess she hasn’t read our contribution. We can’t visualize “hands-off of care” but know this – for patient-centered care a gyne cancer UNIT is definitely needed in Regina and in Saskatoon and is a world wide standard and expected by all gyne oncology graduates. Without an actual UNIT for care, how can specialized delivery of intraperitoneal chemotherapy be delivered? Where will our gyne oncologists be based? Where will the radiologists, pathologists, oncology nurses go for advice, consultations, supplies, information? Like the Breast Health Clinic in the Pasqua Hospital, a Gyne Cancer Unit will lead to better care, understanding, diagnosis, treatment and awareness. Why wouldn’t this be part of a Sask gyne oncology program?    We concur with Dr. Brydon’s suggestion that someone in the Ministry of Health, SaskHealth, health districts, cancer agencies and department needs to own the problem. We suggest that the Ministry assign a Communicator immediately and bring the gyne cancer program working committee together properly with a time line and simple parameters to ensure high quality work in a short period of time and holds the participants accountable. We need to stop wasting time and putting women’s lives at risk. We need to implement a program, provide proper support/offices/nursing, update outdated Sask gyne cancer policy. It’s time for women in Saskatchewan to take notice and ask for what is needed – before being diagnosed! We can assure you that once you are fighting cancer, it’s very difficult to also try to advocate for a proper doctor.    Darlene Gray, On Behalf of OCATS  Ovarian Cancer Awareness & Treatment in Saskatchewan  www.ocats.ca

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