Thank you.
Actually, Dr. Miyasaki answered a lot of the questions I was going to ask, but I've heard very many people say that the CDR should be abandoned because it's not doing a good job, and we should go back to the provincial groups because our provincial pals are already doing the same thing and it's a duplication of effort.
I disagree with that because I agree with what Carolyn Bennett was saying. If we're looking at distributive justice, we want to make sure that everyone across the country has access to certain drugs. At the same time, I hear from Mr. Lexchin how we have too many people with clinical backgrounds, because they bring a bias. I don't know if that's what he intended to say, but that's what I heard him say. I also heard Dr. Miyasaki saying we need to have more people with clinical expertise and knowledge of evidence-based medicine to be on this, because if you're going to have cost effectiveness, cost effectiveness is about cost and outcome and quality of life.
I believe we need to look at how the CDR is constituted and whether we're getting the best answers to the question. Distributive justice means that it doesn't really matter if P.E.I. cannot afford it. We need to be able to find some formula that would allow us to expand what Prince Edward Islands needs if they cannot afford it. Otherwise we have walked away from the whole concept of access in this country. If all you can do is have access to investigation and access to hospitals but you don't have access to treatment, what is the point? You tell me nicely that I can get all kinds of tests, but when it comes to getting better, unless I have money, I can't. The federal government does have to assume some cost-sharing role, I believe, if this is going to work.
I think Dr. Miyasaki has an important point to make on why we need to expand this, not only to bureaucracies that decide only on cost, but to people who understand evidence-based care and who understand the clinical care of the patient to bring about that side of the effect. If we're going to bring about patients, we need to bring about people who will represent patients, in large, in general. Otherwise, we're going to have advocacy groups all fighting over what should be acceptable and not, and we will miss the whole result.