The largest health authority in Newfoundland and Labrador may have difficulty arranging for breast cancer samples to be tested elsewhere amid a widening pathologist shortage, a senior official warns.

Dr. Nash Denic said labs in mainland Canada may not be able to handle samples sent from Eastern Health. (CBC)

Dr. Nash Denic, the chief of laboratory medicine at Eastern Health, said he has approached laboratories in other provinces for help in handling breast cancer tests.

Two pathologists, including Dr. Beverley Carter, the authority's only specialist in breast cancer pathology, have given their notice within the last month, and a third is taking stress-related leave.

Denic said Friday that Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto has not yet responded, but another hospital has warned him it is facing its own resource problems.

"I received another letter from another lab on the mainland telling me, while we know you're in a very difficult situation … and we know that you're losing your breast pathologist, our lab cannot help you in this regard. We have problems of our own," Denic told CBC News.

"It's going to very difficult finding somebody to take over on our workload."

When Carter's resignation takes effect next month, Eastern Health will have eight vacancies on its pathology roster.

Another pathologist, Dr. Dan Fontaine, the only specialist in the province on cervical cancer pathology, told CBC News earlier this week that chronic understaffing was a key factor in his decision to resign.

Liberal Leader Yvonne Jones said the Newfoundland and Labrador government ought to raise salaries and improve working conditions to prevent more pathologists from leaving for labs in other jurisdictions.

Jones said that a stipend that the government introduced in May 2007 has not been enough.

"The compensation ... has allowed the pathologists in this province to move from dead last in terms of salary benefits in North America to the bottom of the scale in Canada," Jones told the house of assembly Thursday.

The resignations come in the wake of the ongoing Cameron inquiry, which is examining how hundreds of inaccurate hormone receptor test results were produced at a St. John's lab, now managed by Eastern Health, between 1997 and 2005.

Health Minister Ross Wiseman, who is scheduled to meet with the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association on Friday on the issue, said he is hopeful that new recruits will come on stream as the two resignations take effect.

Wiseman did not suggest Thursday what steps his government is planning to take, but he offered assurances that his government is working on it.

"I can clearly tell you that we are bringing a great deal of energy to bear. We are bringing all of the affected parties to the table, to try to work through a solution collectively," Wiseman said.

"We will continue with our diligent efforts to make sure that we have an adequate supply of physicians for this province and will do our best to work with them to ensure that we are able to keep them in this province."