Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Everyone has talked a lot about the importance of primary prevention, and I'm certainly a believer in it. You refer to it as “upstream patients”. I've never heard that expression; I like it.
Clearly it's very important to have good patient education. Also, in keeping with treatment guidelines, the role of pharmacology is extremely important in primary prevention. I'd ask Dr. Lewanczuk, Dr. Glasgow, and Ms. Estey to comment, please. I'd like your opinion on three different questions.
To the gentlemen, I address you because I'd like you to comment on the effect on wait lists that pharmaceuticals can have. Specifically, I'm thinking of surgical wait lists, dialysis, and drugs like statins or ACE inhibitors. I'd like to know your opinion on the effect of wait lists and the effect pharmaceuticals can have on a patient's quality of life. Third—and this gets to a broader question—we're always looking at finite resources and infinite demand in health care. I'd like your opinion on whether these drug classes I've mentioned, or similar drugs, represent a net cost or a net savings to our health care system when you consider what the impact may be on dialysis, or surgery, or time in hospital.
I'd like to get you to comment on these. They're pretty big questions; I recognize that.