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![\"Ian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/4679332_web1_240518-DR-DIDNT--QUIT-01.jpg\")
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Ian Hitchen \/ The Brandon Sun Files<\/p>\n
Dr. Brady Anderson\u2019s departure is a bit blow to the Western Manitoba Cancer Centre, Brandon West MLA Wayne Balcaen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe literally sees hundreds of patients within the Westman area, and now those individuals will have to travel to Winnipeg to get that personal service,\u201d Balcaen said, calling Anderson\u2019s impending departure \u201ccatastrophic.\u201d<\/p>\n
A medical oncologist is a cancer doctor who specializes in the treatment of cancer with chemotherapy or other cancer-related medicine, CancerCare Manitoba\u2019s website says.<\/p>\n
In an interview Thursday, Anderson said he\u2019s leaving \u201cafter several years of strongly advocating to medical leadership\u201d for more staff or resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything would be helpful to make this a potentially sustainable work environment, but (I) was unfortunately denied,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As a born-and-raised Westman resident, originally from Reston, Anderson said his goal was always to practise in the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still deeply care about Westman and patients. This is where I\u2019m from. This is where my family\u2019s from, and I want them to make sure that they have access to the best possible care at all times,\u201d he said, adding that his family is a big factor in his decision to stay in Manitoba, rather than move to another province.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s switching to general medicine and will practise at the Brandon hospital. One day, he hopes to return to oncology.<\/p>\n
Until then, Anderson will no longer be allowed to prescribe cancer-care medication, despite having the education and experience to do so.<\/p>\n
He said he is worried about the effect on very sick patients \u201cthat need a more streamlined approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy biggest fear is that the sicker patients, that would normally be seen through the hospital system, are not going to make it to the other side. That they\u2019re going to be lost in the grey zone of people who do not yet have a diagnosis,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n
He said most cancer patients need a diagnosis before they can be booked to be seen by the specialist.<\/p>\n
Anderson described the demand as \u201csky high\u201d and said it\u2019s \u201cnot infrequent that people will wait longer\u201d to be seen in Brandon, rather than commute to Winnipeg.<\/p>\n
He emphasized that \u201cthe needs of communities outside of Winnipeg are different than the needs within Winnipeg.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anderson said he typically works from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., but \u201cit would be rare for me to ever leave before then.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd particularly disheartening is that, despite working significant amounts beyond what is requested in the contract, out of necessity, that (CancerCare Manitoba leadership) had declined to provide any other compensation for it,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n
Balcaen said he views Anderson\u2019s predicament as \u201cconstructive dismissal,\u201d a situation in which the employer has failed to comply with the contract of employment in a major way or unilaterally changed the terms of employment, forcing the employee to quit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s extremely difficult for (Anderson). This decision did not come easy, and I could see it\u2019s weighing heavily on him because he cares very much about his patients,\u201d Balcaen said.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson from Doctors Manitoba confirmed the current number of oncologists working in Manitoba in an email to the Brandon Sun.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see 23 medical oncologists listed today with only one in Brandon and the rest in Winnipeg,\u201d the spokesperson wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccording to our analysis of national data, Manitoba has about 20 per cent fewer medical oncologists per capita than the Canadian average.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
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Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said the government has been \u201cexpanding the cancer-care services in (the Westman) region, and we will continue to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve invested in expanding cancer-care services in Prairie Mountain Health \u2026 (and) we\u2019re training doctors in Brandon now,\u201d Asagwara said.<\/p>\n
A provincial spokesperson said in a statement that \u201cthere continues to be one medical oncologist on staff as well as three radiation oncologists.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Western Manitoba Cancer Centre \u201cis also staffed by two family physicians who have special training in cancer care,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Brandon Sun<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRANDON \u2014 Western Manitoba is about to lose its only medical oncologist, leaving just 22 in the province…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":951652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-951651","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\/951651","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=951651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/951652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}