Cancer patients to be turned away after budget cuts in Ontario

Budget cuts at Canada's largest cancer treatment hospital mean 4,400 patients could be turned away next year.

Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto has announced that $20 million will be cut from its budget. The hospital is part of the University Health Network (UHN), which oversees Toronto's biggest and busiest hospitals, including the Toronto General and Toronto Western.

UHN chief executive officer Tom Closson says the cut will affect Princess Margaret Hospital's ability to accept new patients. "We're reducing the number of new people we'd be able to take on assessment, to assess their cancer whether they need surgery, radiation therapy or chemotherapy," he said.

The wait time at the hospital for surgical patients is approximately 62 days - more than twice the maximum amount of time recommended by oncologists.

Closson says that although Princess Margaret Hospital currently accepts all new patients, 10 per cent of those patients - approximately 4,400 - will have to be assessed elsewhere in the province.

A spokesman for Cancer Care Ontario - a provincial government body responsible for cancer treatment - says the patients turned away from Princess Margaret's can be absorbed by other hospitals in Ontario.