N.L. arthritis doctors not accepting patients

A worsening shortage of medical specialists will make it more difficult for arthritis patients in Newfoundland and Labrador to get the care they need.

About 95,000 people in the province have arthritis, and now one of the four doctors who treat adults with the condition is leaving. 

The three remaining arthritis doctors say they can't keep up with the need for their services. They've written family doctors saying they'll no longer accept any routine arthritis cases and will remove the least urgent patients from their wait lists.

Advocates for arthritis patients says it's a horrible blow.

"Its not just slipping through the cracks anymore," said Bruce Chislett of the Arthritis Society. "People are falling through the widest kind of gap here. There are thousands of people who just aren't going to get the services they need and would greatly benefit from."

Chislett said it already takes up to five years to see an arthritis specialist in the province.

The specialists fear that if they don't treat inflammatory arthritis quickly enough, it will cause irreversible damage to patients' joints.

"It's not just that you are not going to have access to a wait list or be put on a wait list," Chislett. said. "If you are already there you may be removed."