Two specialists from the IWK Health Centre are suing the children’s hospital and the Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness for a breach of promise.
Dr. John Crocker and Dr. Philip Acott are the only full-time pediatric nephrologists in Atlantic Canada.
They claim the province and the hospital made a promise to hire a third nephrologist almost 18 years ago but say the promise wasn’t kept.
A pediatric nephrologist deals with kidney disease in children and the entire sixth floor of the IWK Health Centre is devoted to children with kidney disease.
Crocker was the only nephrologist in the Atlantic region for 20 years - from the early 1970s to the early 1990s – and looked after all kidney cases brought to the IWK Health Centre during that time.
In the mid-90s, Acott was hired to help shoulder the patient burden.
According to testimony, letters and exhibits submitted in Nova Scotia Supreme Court by their lawyer on Tuesday, Acott was promised a third nephrologist in the spring of 1996.
However, a third kidney specialist was never hired, and Acott testified in court that he “desperately wanted three.”
In 2004, eight years after the alleged promise was made, the specialists sued the hospital and the province for failing to hire the third nephrologist.
Ten years after the civil suit was filed, it has made its way to court.
Acott testified that some doctors attempted to have his appointment overturned and he singled out only one, Dr. John Anderson, who treated him kindly during that time.
The doctors want compensation for the years they performed the work of three nephrologists and feel the third salary, which was approved by government in 1996, should be shared between them.
Tuesday marked day two of the five-week civil suit.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Rick Grant
