Health Committee on June 6th, 2007

[John Wright]

I'd simply also add that one of the things we'll be trying through the CDR is to put some of these recommendations to the provinces in simplified language so that my father-in-law can sit there, read it, understand the rationale for the decision, and so on. That's one way of engaging and involving the public, putting very complex reviews into simple language.

Indeed, as Dr. Sanders has pointed out, at the end of the day the letters my minister receives or the letters the Minister of Health in B.C. receives, or others...the public is very much engaged, let me assure you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Thank you very much.

Our last questioner will be Ms. Bonnie Brown--and she doesn't really have a question, she has a small statement--and then we'll close this off. I have one quick question for you.

[Steven Fletcher, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia, MB]

Actually, Mr. Chair, I have a question as well.

[Bonnie Brown, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

I just want to say that when you start talking about $17 billion a year, I wonder how many Canadians realize those kinds of costs, that it actually outstrips the military, which is one of our big responsibilities here. From that perspective, I don't think you can ever keep everybody happy.

So just by hearing you defend what you've been doing, I want to thank you. I consider the job you have is somewhat thankless, because the realities of the decisions you have to make are enormous. I think we have to be careful not to be swayed by the individual stories and the individual tales, which are very heart-rending and sad. But the fact is that we have to have these decisions made, and let's put it this way, I'm glad it's you and not me.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Thank you.

One quick question, Mr. Fletcher.

[Steven Fletcher, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia, MB]

Mr. Wright, on the issue of transparency, you say that CDR is transparent. I have to say, in fairness, a lot of the push-back that we've heard from a lot of different stakeholders is that CDR is not transparent. Transparency includes how the decisions are made, what factors are included in that, who's making the decisions, the information from manufacturers, and so on. I think it would be helpful for the committee to get your point of view on that criticism, which I have to say I think is a fair criticism.

[John Wright]

Very quickly, Mr. Chair, let me say I understand the criticism, and there's always more that one can do. Let me assure you on that. I say, Mr. Chair, to you and to all members of the committee, we welcome the deputy ministers to take a look at mechanisms that can improve transparency; there's no question about that.

But we have gone a long ways since the review in 2005. We've added review processes; we've added public representatives; we've tried again to put things in simplified language; we're going to be publishing more and more on the CDR, instead of the one- to two-page abstract that Mike talked about, going to a 15-page....

If there's more that we can do, Mr. Chair, and you and your committee members have suggestions, certainly we'll take them into consideration as we move forward.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Thank you very much.

[Dr. Jill Sanders]

Could I add to that?

The deputy ministers approved and have provided funding for us to publish the minutes of the CEDAC meetings. That will start in the fall. That is a fairly significant step toward answering Mr. Fletcher's question, I think.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

I have one question on behalf of the committee.

We have a statement issued on April 1, 2005, I think. It's a grant to the Canadian Coordinating Office for Health Technology Assessment, which is actually suggesting that there will be a planned audit and evaluation on the common drug review, a health technology assessment, the Canadian optimal medication prescribing and utilization service, those three or four things. The common drug review is there, supposedly to be issued by the end of June.

Can you tell me about that? This was actually news to the committee up until a short time ago. We were a little surprised that nobody had mentioned that this was happening.

[Dr. Jill Sanders]

In fact, the evaluation that is being referred to in the grant is the evaluation actually of the other funding for CADTH. So the specific programs that would be under that evaluation would be our health technology assessment program; the optimal medication prescribing and utilization service, which is called COMPUS; one other element that is specific, which is the liaison officers that we have across the country; and in general, an evaluation of the agency.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

It also says CDR.

[Dr. Jill Sanders]

Because the CDR was evaluated as recently as fall 2005, and because the implementation of those measures is only now rolling out, it is not part of the evaluation that will be delivered in June.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Okay. That's information that we needed to know, because--

[Dr. Jill Sanders]

I understand. I can see the confusion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

We didn't know how fast to come out with ours, because--

[Dr. Jill Sanders]

Yes, you're all right.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

We didn't want to get too mixed up in all of these reports on CDR.

I want to thank you very much for coming in.

With that, we will call this part of the meeting over, and we will move in camera to discuss the report.

Thank you very much.

[Proceedings continue in camera]