The Alberta Medical Association says the government needs to improve pay for oncologists to fix what it is calling a “dangerously overstrained and under-resourced” cancer care system in Alberta.Alberta cancer patients are waiting 13 weeks to see a radiation oncologist and eight weeks for a medical oncologist, according to the Alberta Medical Association.
Only 25 new oncologists enter the Canadian workforce each year so they are in high demand across Canada and the rest of the world. He says Alberta will need about 50 extra oncologists over the next three years to keep up. The number of oncologists is not keeping up with Alberta's population growth. In 2013, 102 oncologists practised in Alberta. In 2022, the number increased by 20 per cent to 122. The number of new cancer cases increased by 40 per cent over those nine years.
The AMA fears the physician shortage which has left 650,000 to 800,000 Albertans without a family doctor means patients won't be diagnosed until their cancers have progressed so far that their chance of survival has diminished.