Health Committee on April 30th, 2007

[Dr. Jennifer Knox]

We have in some areas. We wrote a consensus statement on the treatment of colorectal cancer. The west coast met and the east coast met, and we independently came up with almost identical documents. It's out there and it's been published. I'm leading a group now in which we are going to have a national consensus on kidney cancer.

We haven't always had to do that because we haven't been challenged with the problems of the cost until recently. I think it behooves us to try to do it more.

I think it's quite possible and easy for us to get consensus on it. We do it in the hope that it's going to lead to funding. That being said, all the other issues really need to be addressed so something can come of it.

[Dr. William Hryniuk]

You can write guidelines all you want. But if you don't monitor to see whether or not they're being adhered to and, if not, why they're not adhered to, there's no sense in writing national guidelines.

In B.C., they write guidelines, and they watch the monitoring. They see where there's no adherence and close that loop.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Very good. Thank you.

[Bonnie Brown, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

But would it not be easier to get public will behind national funding standards for these drugs, if there were in fact national practice guidelines the practitioners agreed to?

Let's face it, if there were guidelines, patients would demand that doctors in their jurisdictions use those guidelines and that provincial governments pay for the drugs those guidelines implied.

[Dr. William Hryniuk]

Amen.

[Bonnie Brown, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

In some ways, the ball is then in your court, is it not?

[Barry Stein]

I don't think it's within the court of patient advocates to decide public policy.

[Bonnie Brown, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

No, I didn't say that. I'm talking about oncologists coming to some level of agreement.

[Dr. William Hryniuk]

Yes.

[Barry Stein]

Yes.

[Bonnie Brown, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

It would carry a tremendous amount of weight with patients, governments, and voters.

[Dr. William Hryniuk]

If you encouraged us to do it through the mechanism of CPAC, it would work.

[Barry Stein]

The truth of the matter is we've had guidelines. I alluded to some in Quebec by way of example. It's no different from any other province, and the drug is still not funded. It's not a guarantee.

[Bonnie Brown, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

You have to pressure one province against the other.

[Barry Stein]

We're trying.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Thank you, Ms. Brown.

Thank you to the witnesses.

It's been very interesting, and the questions equally so. We want to extend our thanks to you for coming to testify before the committee. We consider this to be an important subject.

With that, I'll call the meeting adjourned until next time.