St. Clare's internal medicine doctors give mass resignation notice, warn of 'impending crisis'

Five doctors at a St. John's hospital have tendered a joint notice of resignation, saying their work environment has become "unsafe for both patient care and provider well-being," CBC Investigates has learned.

The doctors make up the internal medicine department at St. Clare's Mercy Hospital — responsible for a wide range of critical services provided for both emergency patients and those admitted to the hospital.

The letter says the doctors will not be performing any duties outside their contractual obligations — no evenings or weekends — starting on July 1, until their resignation takes effect on Oct. 1.

"It has become increasingly clear to them that continuing under the current model would further compromise patient safety and the already fragile well-being of the team," reads the letter, written by lawyer Kyle Rees of O'Dea Earle and sent to the provincial health authority's executive on Monday.

Rees declined comment when reached on Thursday, and stressed that neither he nor his clients provided the letter to CBC Investigates.

In a statement, Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services said it cannot comment on the resignation letter, but said it values relationships with all health-care providers, and seeks to ensure patient care remains unchanged by human resources challenges.

In the letter, Rees writes that multiple concerns have led to this point, citing a recent decision to remove the hospital's resident support.

The doctors feel NLHS has not done enough to find solutions to the reduction of patient coverage resulting from the move.

"NLHS has consistently deferred responsibility and failed to provide any substantive plan to address this impending crisis," the letter reads.

The five doctors are Michael Jakovac, Olatunji Odumosu, Stephanie Genge, Sanampreet Gurm and Evan Wee. 

Sources say two others — Leonard Phair and Alex Dias — had previously resigned.

Meanwhile, internists at the Health Sciences Centre in St. John's are warning the health authority not to shift the workload to their hospital if the team at St. Clare's resigns en masse.

Another letter was sent on Thursday, co-signed by the internal medicine teams at St. Clare's and the Health Sciences Centre.

"Transferring the workload to the Health Sciences Centre is also not an option," it reads. "HSC is operating at full capacity, and there is no infrastructure, space or staffing to absorb the additional burden."