‘Major crisis’ facing P.E.I. blood cancer patients as another oncologist prepares to leave [Video]

With P.E.I’s only full-time blood oncologist leaving at the end of November, Health P.E.I. was planning to transfer his patients to Dr. Philip Champion, but now Champion says he intends to retire in the spring.

P.E.I.’s only oncologist specifically trained in that field, Dr. Pierre Whitlock, is leaving Health P.E.I. at the end of November. Champion is now the only doctor left on P.E.I. with experience treating blood diseases and cancers.

“I’m anticipating fully retiring in the next year, depending a little bit on the details of how we do with replacing doctors,” Champion told CBC News. “A lot of logistics need to be worked out in a hurry to be able to avoid interruptions of people’s chemotherapy for sure.” 

Last month, Health P.E.I. said current blood cancer patients would be taken care of on the Island, but new patients would potentially need to travel off-Island to get a treatment plan.

That’s still the case for now. But if Health P.E.I. …