{"id":744361,"date":"2026-06-18T06:07:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T06:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/744361\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T06:07:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T06:07:18","slug":"asagwara-hoping-to-persuade-cancer-specialist-to-stay-in-manitoba-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/744361\/","title":{"rendered":"Asagwara hoping to persuade cancer specialist to stay in Manitoba \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manitoba\u2019s health minister is hoping to persuade a highly specialized physician to rescind her resignation and remain at the provincial cancer authority.<\/p>\n

The Free Press previously reported 14 doctors and medical staff<\/a> at CancerCare Manitoba penned a letter to leadership in May about the pending resignation of interventional radiologist Dr. Alessandra Cassano-Bailey, which staff called a \u201chuge loss\u201d that could lead to more departures.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to having a conversation with Dr. Bailey,\u201d Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"MIKE
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

MIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS FILES<\/p>\n

Fourteen doctors and medical staff at CancerCare Manitoba penned a letter to leadership in May about the pending resignation of a specialist. Now, the health minister wants to talk to the interventional radiologist.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did give her a call a few times over the weekend. I believe Dr. Bailey is aware of that and now has my phone number.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asagwara has spoken to the physician\u2019s colleagues and friends and wants to have a conversation with Cassano-Bailey, who tendered her resignation after efforts to introduce a liver cancer procedure \u2014 which is available elsewhere in Canada \u2014 were ignored for years.<\/p>\n

The procedure \u2014 known as transarterial radioembolization \u2014 is applicable for specific forms of liver cancer. It is a minimally invasive treatment that uses targeted radiation to block the blood supply to a tumour, which helps to shrink or control its growth and reduce damage to healthy tissue.<\/p>\n

Asagwara said \u201cof course\u201d the province would support the doctor\u2019s efforts.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Sign<\/p>\n

\u201cOur government is always open to establish new and innovative treatments that are going to improve the outcomes for Manitobans,\u201d the minister said at an unrelated news conference Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s our priority; making sure that Manitobans can live healthier and have access to technologies, treatments and support in our province that give them a better chance at a better outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asagwara cautioned, however, that health care \u201cis not a blank cheque.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it doesn\u2019t mean that we can\u2019t take steps in the right direction\u2026 it doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t get the ball rolling,\u201d the minister said.<\/p>\n

morgan.modjeski@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Morgan<\/p>\n

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manitoba\u2019s health minister is hoping to persuade a highly specialized physician to rescind her resignation and remain at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":744362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-744361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=744361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}