Bette Winsor: 'Isn't it bad enough to be told you have cancer?' (CBC)

Newfoundland and Labrador's three gynecologic oncologists have stopped accepting referrals, leaving one patient pleading with government to take action quickly to save lives.

The three specialists — Lesa Dawson, Cathy Popadiuk and Patti Power, all based in St. John's — previously set Sept. 16 as the day they would stop accepting new patients. The doctors had said they would resign in October, but have now pushed that deadline back to December.

The physicians have asked for increases in support staff and access to more operating-room time, as well as better remuneration. They say it is unfair their patients receive a lower quality of care than patients elsewhere in Canada.

Cancer survivor Bette Winsor said she is furious that the impasse between the physicians and the Newfoundland and Labrador government has dragged on this long.

"If [Premier] Danny Williams doesn't soon do something about this, it's going to mean a death sentence for so many women," Winsor said.

"Isn't it bad enough to be told you have cancer? But then to be told there's nothing they can do or they don't know what to do with you, ... it's like a double whammy," she said. "You think, 'Well, I'm going to die. If I don't get help, what am I going to do?' "

Health Minister Ross Wiseman is not commenting publicly on the matter, and the Department of Health and Community Services said it could not comment on what will happen with patients now needing referrals for suspected gynecologic cancers, although it said progress is being made on the issue.

Dr. Elizabeth Callahan: 'I find it very difficult to imagine that government would let it get to this stage.' (CBC)

Elizabeth Callahan, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association and a general practitioner in St. John's, said she has no idea what to tell patients who may need a referral.

She added that physicians have been given no guidance on how to advise their patients.

"I find it a very, very difficult prospect.... It's difficult enough to tell a patient they have cancer, but to have to tell a patient that they have cancer and that I cannot provide the service that they need from this point on — I find that very difficult to imagine how we're going to deal with that," Callahan told CBC News.

"I find it very difficult to imagine that government would let it get to this stage."

CBC News has been told that meetings are being scheduled between government officials and the three physicians.

Speaking at a fundraiser for ovarian cancer awareness last week, Popadiuk told CBC News that there has been progress with officials at Eastern Health, the authority that employs all of them. However, she said, there had been little progress with top government officials.

Wiseman sparked a controversy this summer when he said the government would, if necessary, send gynecologic oncology patients out of province for treatment.

Wiseman also said he was confident government would be able to recruit replacements for the three specialists should they follow through on their resignations, even though there are only about 50 such specialists in the country.