Health Committee on March 10th, 2011

[Glenda Yeates]

Mr. Chair, I'm very pleased to respond to this question, but I might make a comment on the tabling request. We're certainly happy to gather the information on wait times that we have. Under the accord, the Canadian Institute for Health Information was asked to be the public reporting body. We will certainly pull together information from that and other sources.

In response to the first tabling request about discussions on the health accord, my response to the question was that discussions are taking place in the community. The discussions at the federal government level are really the Senate discussions. Those began this week. We will obviously reflect that in the tabling of the information, but I want to be clear, there aren't other discussions that I will be tabling in terms of dates.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

There are no other discussions and at no other level?

[Glenda Yeates]

Mr. Chair, certainly in terms of the Health Canada-led discussions, there are not. There are many discussions occurring among the public.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

So that was at the federal government. Thank you.

Could you address the drug shortages, please.

[Glenda Yeates]

Mr. Chair, the member raises a very important question. It's been one that has been flagged in the media, and indeed by the Canadian Pharmacists Association, as was mentioned.

This has been brought to our attention by the Canadian Pharmacists Association and others. As we all know, drugs are manufactured by industry. There are a number of changes, at all times, taking place in the industry supply chain, whether they are on the wholesale side or the retail side. When this issue comes forward, we typically try to work with partners to understand the nature of the issue.

Currently we've been discussing this with a number of provinces. We've been in contact with provinces and territories which, as you know, are responsible for not only delivering hospital services but also significant drug programs. In addition, we are preparing a letter. I think the minister will be writing a letter to the major drug manufacturers to explore with them what they are experiencing.

We are following up with stakeholders. We don't at this time have a full understanding of what these drug shortages might be and where they might be occurring. We have anecdotal information. We're working with CADTH, the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health, to understand if we can get a better picture of the situation.

Those are the steps we're taking at the moment, Mr. Chair.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you.

Perhaps you could table with the committee what the specific actions are, to give us a fuller picture. I'd appreciate that.

Perhaps you could also table with the committee a complete accounting of what moneys have been spent to date on the former HIV lab in Winnipeg, what money is left, and all action the government has taken on this file. I believe that on December 1 there were appointments made, and I'd like to have an update on that.

[Dr. David Butler-Jones]

Just for clarification, and we can pursue this after, I'd like to make sure we provide the right information you seek. We'd be very happy to provide an update on where everything is. The resources that were dedicated to that are still in the program and are moving into the new areas of research, etc., but we will do an update for the committee.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thanks, Dr. Butler-Jones.

There has been a lot of interest in a public cord blood bank. I put forward a bill. I know there has been a motion put forward. I wonder if you could provide us with a status update. Is a public cord blood bank forthcoming?

[Glenda Yeates]

I'll have to get back to you on that. I don't have an update on it, but I'll be happy to get that information for you.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Okay, thank you.

Dr. Beaudet, on December 7 you kindly came to the neurological subcommittee and we talked about the importance of follow-up care. We're still hearing stories that people are having difficulty getting follow-up care. You kindly said that you would do what you could to ensure it's occurring.

Could you table with the committee what actions you have taken to ensure follow-up care for MS patients who receive CCSVI treatment overseas?

[Dr. Alain Beaudet]

Certainly we'll be pleased to table that. We have taken a series of actions, including communicating with all the various colleges.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Tim Uppal]

Thank you very much.

Monsieur Malo.

[Luc Malo, Bloc, Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I would also like to thank all the witnesses for being with us this afternoon.

Ms. Yeates, last time you were here, I shared my concern about having patients who use marijuana for medical purposes break the law. I was saying that because their possession certificates and production licences could not be renewed on time because the department was not able to process the claims within the given timeframe.

You told me at the time that the situation was going to be resolved any day or any week, and that you were on top of the situation and there was going to be a solution.

But I am still reading in the media that patients are being told by people from your department that their files are fine and in good standing, but that they will have to wait because of a shortage of staff.

So these people are still living illegally. Can you tell us when this situation will actually be resolved?

[Glenda Yeates]

Mr. Chair, thank you.

Thank you very much for the question.

I'm very pleased to be able to report to the committee. This is an issue that came up before. We acknowledged, the last time we were in front of this committee, that we were in a backlog. We were not processing the large volume of claims we had in our eight-week to ten-week benchmark period. I told the committee we were adding resources and putting in monitoring systems. We have now done so, and I'm pleased to report to the committee that we are meeting the targets and processing the claims in that eight- to ten-week timeframe.

I'd be happy to follow up. If concerns have been raised, they are not ones I am aware of. The backlogs we spoke about here previously, according to our data, have been resolved. I would be pleased to follow up if there is particular information we should know about.

[Luc Malo, Bloc, Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC]

On the same issue, I must say I was amused this morning to read in the Information Commissioner's report that Health Canada has replaced its approval process for highly sensitive cases with a notification process. The report also said that this change has resulted in improved turnaround times and compliance for access to information requests, of course. But last September 28, I made an access to information request to your department to find out how many individuals were in the illegal situation I was describing to you earlier in terms of accessing marijuana for medical purposes. I have been waiting for an answer for 163 days now, which obviously exceeds the standards. Where is my request? Madam, why don't I have access to this information?

[Glenda Yeates]

I thank the hon. member for his question.

As the member noted, we have put a focus throughout the department on improving our transparency and access to information. I am pleased to tell the committee that in fact we have made significant improvements. We have not yet dealt with all of the backlogs.

We acknowledge that we still have some issues, and obviously the one the member raised is one of those. I will look for that particular request. I would assure the committee that we have put resources and measurement into this area. It's an area where I have seen notable improvement. I'm pleased to see that this has been acknowledged elsewhere by the commissioner. We still have some work to do and we are working hard at this. I will follow up on the individual requests.

[Luc Malo, Bloc, Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC]

But in terms of my access to information request specifically, why have I still not received an answer after 163 days, when the Information Commissioner says that you have put a process in place to speed things up in very sensitive cases? Does the process work for other people but not for me?

[Glenda Yeates]

I would like to assure the member that we are absolutely focused on responding to every request that we get. I am not aware of the circumstances behind this individual request, but I will certainly follow up.

[Luc Malo, Bloc, Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Yeates, going back to our last meeting here, I asked you whether, under the Natural Health Products Regulations, any applications were due in March. You said no and that the 30-month rule would apply. But then I read, again in the media, that Health Canada had sent an email to Radio-Canada on December 22 to say that the March 1 deadline had to be pushed back. What was the March 1 deadline you had not told me about when you appeared before the committee in November?

[Glenda Yeates]

Thank you very much for the question. I'm happy to have the opportunity to talk about what I picked up from previous conversations has been a challenging area for us, which is to process all of the natural health product applications that we have before us.

As the member has pointed out, at one point we had a deadline for trying to deal with all of the backlog, the natural health products that existed prior to the introduction of the legislation. We've been working through that. At one point we talked about that backlog. At the same time we're dealing with the incoming products that were coming to us as a regulator.

What we have done, and I think we talked about this at the committee last time, is we recognized that we wanted to give new producers access to the market and we wanted to give Canadians access to new products, so we introduced new regulations. We spoke about them a little when I was here in November. I am talking about UPLAR, the unprocessed product licence applications regulations. It doesn't trip off the tongue easily, I admit. It is a process whereby we look at ongoing submissions very quickly to make sure they meet safety and quality concerns. If we think they can be put on the market, we look at them very quickly and within 180 days we give them either a natural health product number, having done a complete review, or an exemption number.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Tim Uppal]

Ms. Leslie.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Thank you, everybody, for being here today.

My first questions are about antibiotics. My first question is for the Public Health Agency, Dr. Butler-Jones.

My understanding is that the Public Health Agency and CIPARS monitor the presence of antimicrobial resistance. I am wondering if that information is public.

[Dr. David Butler-Jones]

Certainly the reports are public.

[Megan Leslie, NDP, Halifax, NS]

The reports are public.

[Dr. David Butler-Jones]

There are two major surveillance systems. One is CIPARS, which is focused on the animal-human interface, and there is the Canadian nosocomial infection surveillance program, which is focused on nosocomial infections, hospital- and institution-acquired infections resistance. The two actually go hand in hand. If you want more detail, Dr. Engelhardt would be pleased to provide that.