LONGER WAITS FOR ONCOLOGY
Jewish General tells some patients to go elsewhere
Some cancer patients at the Jewish General Hospital are once again facing lengthy delays to start their radio-oncology treatment — a situation that concerns the Quebec health ministry, the Montreal Gazette has learned.
Government guidelines recommend that cancer patients undergo their treatment within four weeks, highlighting the urgency of their cases. But as of Wednesday, six cancer patients had been waiting longer than a month, while others were told to go elsewhere for treatment.
What’s more, the latest provincial figures show that the Jewish General’s wait times for cancer treatment are the longest by far of any hospital in the province.
To put those numbers in perspective: 100 per cent of cancer patients at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, near the Olympic Stadium, started their treatment within four weeks for the period ending May 26. At the McGill University Health Centre, the rate was 98 per cent.
For the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM), 94 per cent of patients commenced their treatment within a month.
By comparison, the rate was 78 per cent at the Jewish General. Apart from the Côte-des-Neiges hospital, no other cancer centre in the province reported a rate below 94 per cent.
Health Minister Gaétan Barrette’s office declined to answer questions about the Jewish General’s delays, referring all queries to a ministry spokesperson.
Noémie Vanheuverzwijn, the ministry spokesperson, said some cancer patients are being referred to other hospitals in what are called “temporary corridors of service” to help the Jewish General reduce its backlog.
“A continuous followup has been set up with the institution in the last few weeks, given its issues with delays and personnel,” Vanheuverzwijn responded by email.
“Temporary corridors of service have been put in place, and we will conduct follow-ups to ensure that patients are referred to the (cancer) centre in their region to make sure that there is adequate patient distribution between centres.”
Vanheuverzwijn warned that if some cancer patients who have been encouraged to seek care elsewhere insist on being treated at the Jewish General, they will be “informed that delays are possible.”
The bottleneck at the Jewish General stems from the fact that two of the four technicians who measure dosages in radiotherapy are on sick leave, underscoring how a sudden drop in staffing can have such a drastic impact on the care of patients. Indeed, Quebec’s public health network is so overburdened, say observers, maintaining adequate staffing across all departments is often a daily problem in hospitals, especially in nursing.
This is not the first time the Jewish General has struggled with lengthy wait times for cancer treatment. The Gazette reported three years ago that 82 per cent of patients were waiting longer than a month for radiotherapy — at the time, also the worst record in the province.
In 2015, the hospital was coping with a 40 per cent cut in its radiotherapy budget from the previous year.
This time around, officials in both the ministry and the Jewish General denied the cancer centre has been hit with budget cuts.
“Fewer than 10 per cent of radiation-oncology patients are facing delays in starting their treatment,” said Emmanuelle Paciullo, a spokesperson for the Jewish General.
“We are continuously reassessing the cases in which the tumours are less aggressive. These patients can benefit from temporary corridors of service that we have established with all radiation-oncology centres in Montreal.”
Paciullo noted that the dosimetry technicians on the recall list “need time to become as productive as the regular members of the staff,” which might explain the delays. She was unable to say when the Jewish General is expected to be back up to regular speed.
The Jewish General runs the Segal Cancer Centre, which has won praise for its comprehensive approach in the treatment of a wide range of malignancies. The hospital has also invested heavily in research, making a number of important discoveries.
Indeed, the cancer centre’s reputation of excellence has extended far beyond the city ’s West End, attracting patients from Laval and the South Shore. But three years ago, the health ministry responded to the Jewish General’s influx of cancer patients by forcing it to adopt what came to be known as the “postal code policy” — turning away patients who didn’t live in the West End — a practice that critics charged violated the Canada Health Act.
We will conduct follow-ups to ensure that patients are referred to the (cancer) centre in their region to make sure that there is adequate patient distribution.