No. The data that Dr. Downar refers to and the data that Health Canada reports is the wrong kind of data. It doesn't lend itself to being able to make these sorts of conclusions. I mean, it's self-reporting.
I have the form in front of me. Essentially, the form asks, “Did the patient receive palliative care, yes or no?”, and, “To the best of your knowledge, if the answer is no, was palliative care accessible to the patient, yes or no?”. That's not enough.
We need significantly more data. We need to know much more information. We need to understand the quality of health care being provided and how it impacts palliative care. This sort of health admin data does not do it.
We also need to have national standards to measure the quality of palliative care across the country, with reporting to Accreditation Canada so that health authorities are essentially obligated and held accountable.
Thank you.