St. John's pathologist withdraws resignation

A St. John's pathologist who resigned last month said Friday he's now going to stay, after the provincial government announced salary increases for pathologists and following a meeting with Premier Danny Williams.

Dan Fontaine — the only pathologist at Eastern Health specializing in cervical cancer —  had handed in his resignation last month and was heading to Calgary before the province announced almost $6 million to increase pathologist and oncologist salaries.

Fontaine said he withdrew his resignation after hearing about the salary increase and other benefits, and after having a personal meeting with Premier Danny Williams on Wednesday afternoon.

"And we just discussed some issues from that end and then I basically went home, reviewed things, thought about where things are," Fontaine said.

Fontaine also said he heard about  potential applicants who are interested in coming to the province, saying the salary improvement is a big factor in getting more doctors to come and stay.   

"I mean they've certainly delivered on what we've asked for in the hopes that we can recruit and retain individuals. We asked if there could be something done about the weather, but that wasn't one of the things that could be changed," he said.

Fontaine said he'd still like to see more supports in place to to ensure pathologists can offer services in specialty areas like cervical cancer, but he's optimistic that many more improvements are coming.

The province's offer to pathologists includes a $73,000 wage increase, a stipend of $60,000, compensation for being on-call, a retention bonus and other benefits. It moves Newfoundland and Labrador from having one of the lowest packages for pathologists in Canada to one of the highest.