Plans to replenish Canada's dire shortage of crucial radioisotopes are in motion, Government House Leader Peter Van Loan said Friday.

As thousands of patients around the world wait for alternate supplies, Van Loan said during question period that Ottawa is doing everything it can to fix the radioisotope crisis.

'One of our hospitals would be treating 12 people today, but only had sufficient [radioisotope] doses for two.'—Dr. Christopher O'Brien, president of the Ontario Association of Nuclear Medicine

"We are very concerned about this situation and the government has spoken to the agencies involved to have it resolved," he said, adding that Health Canada would try to ensure that emergency procedures requiring the chemical element would receive stocks as needed.

Without the radioactive material, doctors say, they cannot use nuclear imaging scans and X-rays to give timely treatment and diagnoses for cardiovascular diseases, fractures and cancer in patients.

Physicians said they were blindsided last month when the aging Chalk River nuclear reactor in Ontario, which supplies two-thirds of the world's radioisotopes, suddenly shut down for maintenance work that has now surpassed a longer-than-expected two weeks.

Van Loan drew angry cries from the opposite side of the House on Friday when he claimed that unlike the previous Liberal government, the Conservatives had devised a contingency plan.

Unfortunately, the reactor's closure extended "beyond the period contemplated," he said.

"I will point out that this is a situation that dates back to 2005. The previous Liberal government never had any kind of alternative process in place," Van Loan charged.

'Very frustrating for doctors'

Dr. Christopher O'Brien, who heads the Ontario Association of Nuclear Medicine (OANM), said Friday the shutdown at the government-run Chalk River facility represents a "catastrophic" problem.

"As an example, one of our hospitals would be treating 12 people today but only had sufficient doses for two," O'Brien told CBC News on Friday. "For us to try and decide who gets what, to ration the type of medicine that Canadians expect, [that] is unacceptable and it's very frustrating for the doctors."

O'Brien blamed the government's "mismanagement" for tossing physicians' bookings into disarray and forcing doctors to prioritize their patients for diagnostic tests under unreasonably short notice.

"Our understanding … was there was not an urgent situation, whereby the reactor's going to blow up or there's going to be a release of radioactive material into the environment," he said, arguing the government should have had better foresight.

The OANM estimates that in Ontario alone, 8,000 patients each month will have their tests delayed due to the complications at Chalk River.

Roughly 30,000 patients per week in Canada and 400,000 patients per week in the U.S. have nuclear medicine scans, according to the Canadian Society of Nuclear Medicine.