Posted on 03/31/2007 7:03:21 PM PDT by buccaneer81
Need radiation? Wait no longer than 8 weeks
By SHAWN BERRY berry.shawn@dailygleaner.com Published Saturday March 31st, 2007 Appeared on page A1/A2 New Brunswick has signed a $21.3-million deal with Ottawa to guarantee wait times within eight weeks for cancer patients who need radiation therapy.
Dr. Eshwar Kumar, co-CEO of the New Brunswick Cancer Network, said the investment will help recruit specialists to New Brunswick.
He said state-of-the-art equipment being bought under the deal will be based in Saint John and Moncton.
But that will benefit the entire province, he said, and bolster River Valley Health's efforts to recruit a second oncologist in Fredericton.
"It's going to be a huge factor in attracting young (doctors) into the province," said Kumar.
New Brunswick Health Minister Mike Murphy announced details of the $21.3-million deal with the federal government, plus a $10-million signing bonus, on Friday.
The province will receive funding over the next three years to ensure patients in need of radiation therapy receive treatment within eight weeks.
Murphy said that's something the province already accomplishes 95 per cent of the time.
He said delays are due to how specialists treat patients with increasingly precise radiation therapy. They focus on specific areas of the body and that takes more time, he said.
The problem is compounded by a forecast that predicts the number of cancer cases in the province will increase by 11 per cent.
New Brunswick currently has five linear accelerators for radiation therapy. Three of them are in Moncton and the other two are in Saint John.
Kumar said having good technology helps recruit and retain talented doctors whose skills are in high demand.
"The most frustrating thing for people in technical specialties like myself is to work with equipment that is aging," he said.
"As a graduate, you want to be able to use the latest technology, and be able to research with the latest technology."
Even though the new technology being added for cancer care will be in Moncton and Saint John, Kumar said, its addition could help with the recruitment of a second medical oncologist at River Valley Health.
The Fredericton-region health authority has been trying to hire a second medical oncologist for several months.
"Any additional resources in the field of cancer treatment will have a positive effect on our ability to attract a cancer specialist here," said John McGarry, CEO of River Valley Health.
River Valley Health lost one of its two oncologists in October.
Since then, it's been trying to hire a specialist in either medical oncology or oncology/hematology. There are 650 doctors in Canada practicing either of those two specialties.
Earlier this year, Murphy said it would cost between $60 million to $100 million to guarantee wait times for items health ministers agreed on two years ago. They were looking at speedier treatment times for cataract surgery, hip replacements, cancer treatment, and cardiac surgery.
Murphy said the province plans to make good on the eight-week guarantee.
"If we don't, a patient has to be taken to another Maritime province or Quebec with whom we're having discussions, and if that's not available, we'll have other discussions."
They're actually proud of this.
Ping!
My wife is an RN at major hospital. I asked her about this and she just told me that if they have a patient that needs radiation treatment they can usually start getting it the next day (or perhaps a day after that). They are usually DONE treating them in 8 weeks.
http://www.canadaeast.com/ce2/docroot/article.php?articleID=121093
Thanks.
Same deal with coronary bypass surgery.
Yep, re: coronary bypass....a few years ago we had to live in Vancouver, BC for a project......I chatted with a woman whose husband had suffered a heart attack in New York...she was Canadian, and said she was SOOOOO happy it had happened in New York!
It says horrible things about this country that you can get cancer treatment faster for a dog than for a human being.
My Husband had radiation treatments immediately following his surgery to remove the cancer. God forbid we ever get "free universal" healthcare.
My wife waited 8 weeks right here in the USA after a diagnosis of inop brain tumor. We were frustrated, but have encountered similar delays frequently.
Had a girlfriend whose aunt had cancer. At least the possibility was a preliminary diagnosis (felt a lump).
Six months later, she got her chance to have an MRI (or CAT, I don't recall exactly) for a proper diagnosis. In that time, the cancer had metasticized, and she was dead 6 months after that.
Of course, during the six month wait, they didn't KNOW that she could have benefitted from radiation or chemo therapy because they didn't have an actual diagnosis of cancer, so her death would not have impacted their bureaucratic goal of no more than an eight week wait.
That's socialized medicine for you...
this is sad. 5 linacs for an entire province? my hospital alone has five linacs. of course, we like to start treating the patients BEFORE their cancer metastasizes. I understand the patients often prefer it that way.
That sounds highly unusual. Was there a reason you could not go to another center? My patients usually get started on their rad regimen within 2-3 days of seeing the rad oncologist, with the exception of a few highly experimental treatments. Time is tumor growth and a waiting time of weeks is unacceptable.
Thereby saving the Canadian government hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical expenses. MRI tests are cheap enough that people could pay for them out of pocket, but Canada actually prohibits private MRI machines. It's almost as if the government wants to delay diagnoses of expensive, life-threatening illnesses...
Of course they do. It's their version of rationing...
What part of the country do you live in??
ping
Of course they're proud of it. Long waits ensure that a huge percentage of patients die, or are at least past having any use for treatment, by the time they get to the head of waiting list. Saves gobs of money if you never have to treat most of the patients who need it.
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