Fredericton doctors call for action to replace vascular surgeon

New Brunswick's health minister and Fredericton doctors agree that something has to be done about the recent loss of a surgical specialty at the local hospital.

The only remaining vascular surgeon at the Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital, Dr. Claus Schaus, closed his practice last month after almost 30 years.

"The medical community is concerned about what the future of care here is going to look like," Dr. Chris Goodyear, a general surgeon, said.

"We're losing services in spite of the fact that we have a growing population. We're being asked to provide more care to more people with less."

Patients in need of vascular care now have to be referred to doctors in Saint John and Moncton, said Dr. Elna Hauman, an emergency room doctor and president of the physicians' association at the Chalmers.

Wait times will increase and patients will have to travel farther, she said.

Vascular surgeons specialize in all diseased blood vessels other than in the brain or heart, Hauman said. 

When a vascular surgeon is available in-house, a patient with an infection or circulation problem and a foot wound, for example, can be assessed and treated directly and quickly by a specialized team whose members know and trust each other, she said.

When there's no vascular surgeon at the hospital, she — as an emergency doctor — may have to spend a lot of time on the phone trying to secure a referral or manage care with a specialist in another city.

If any surgeon runs into problems in the operating room with bleeding, it's nice to have a vascular specialist around, added Goodyear.

When Goodyear moved to Fredericton 23 years ago, there were two vascular surgeons, a thoracic surgeon and four plastic surgeons. Now, out of each of those specialties, all that remains is one plastic surgeon, he said.

"I know that every hospital in the province can't provide every service, but … we feel that we have the population base here to carry on with this service that has been here for 50 years."

Hauman, too, has witnessed a decline in health services during her time in Fredericton.

"When my husband and I came here almost 25 years ago, we picked this community over other communities because we felt that we could offer full-service family practice here while being supported by a wide range of specialty colleagues."