By Martin Irvine [1]
BELLEVILLE – The man who started treating cancer in Quinte Region was recently honoured after the hospital named its oncology clinic after him.
Ironically, Dr. Douglas MacIntosh is now a patient in the clinic bearing his name.
Belleville General Hospital’s oncology clinic was officially named after Dr. Douglas MacIntosh, who started treating cancer in the city in 1972, at a recent ceremony.
The new facility opened in 2011, but remained unnamed until recently.
MacIntosh said it began as a drafty room just outside the emergency room, and described the room as a “broom closet.”
In 1972, there were four staff members including MacIntosh.
MacIntosh’s goal when he joined the medical profession was to cure cancer. Now, he is a cancer patient at the oncology clinic that bears his name.
“The new 10-treatment-chair facility couldn’t be named for a more fitting or a more deserving person than Dr. Douglas MacIntosh,” said MPP Todd Smith in a statement released Wednesday.