Health and Social Services Minister Mildred Dover advised today that progress is continuing well to establish an enhanced radiation therapy service in Prince Edward Island by the end of this year.
"A functional plan has been completed to recommend where the new service will be located within the hospital and how radiation therapy will work with other cancer-related services. The competition for a medical physicist is now closed and we are about to begin the final selection process. The radiation oncologist search committee has completed its initial work and ads have been placed in major medical publications to recruit the radiation oncologist," said the minister.
Provincial Medical Director Dr. Don Ling said the functional plan to locate the service at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital has been a complex process. It involved looking at several locations within the hospital to locate the service, and none were acceptable.
"The recommendation is to enlarge the present area around the cobalt unit and to co-locate the medical oncology service with the new radiation therapy service, similar to cancer centres in other provinces. Although this will mean more investment up front because we will have to build on to the front of the hospital, I believe it is an excellent investment in the future for health care, as down the road we will have built the capacity here to care for expected increased numbers of cancer patients," he said.
Construction is expected to begin within the next few weeks.
Dr. Ling advised that an important first step in the establishment of the service was to bring a medical physicist on board because of their important role in planning for the service. He advised that the position has been advertised and a short list of applications has been created. A medical physicist from New Brunswick has been invited to assist the selection board with their final decision. The successful candidate will be asked to begin work as soon as possible. It is recommended that this specialist be on-site in the early stages to participate in the planning process and the evaluation of equipment options.
The recruitment process for a radiation oncologist is well underway by a search committee of family physicians and specialists from the Prince County Hospital and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
Ads have been placed in major medical publications, and the job description is being completed. In addition, Dr. Ling advised, a total of 269 personal letters and copies of the ads have been sent to every practicing radiation oncologist in the country, and to each of the thirteen training programs in Canada that produce this type of specialist.
Dr. Ling said he is hopeful that a high quality candidate can be recruited because the several training programs now in place across the country are producing more new specialists than are required for available job opportunities. Prince Edward Island's stated commitment to an expanding in-province radiation oncology program should prove attractive to these new specialists.
He said the search committee hopes to review applications in May, interview applicants in June, award the position in late summer, and have the radiation oncologist begin work in the fall.
"Appropriate timing is critical to the success of this process, and so far we are on target," he said.