Mr. Chairman, distinguished members of the committee, I would like to thank you, as the President of the Quebec Association of Nuclear Medicine Specialists, for giving me this opportunity to appear before you on behalf of my nuclear medicine specialist colleagues from Quebec.
We are currently experiencing a crisis which is truly medical and not political. This morning I listened to the CBC and heard the heart-wrenching testimony of a young 21-year-old patient suffering from thyroid cancer who was literally terrorized by the thought that she may not be able to receive an iodine 131 treatment for her cancer, and she was also concerned about other patients.
In Canada, 5,000 new cases of thyroid cancer are detected every year. Seventy-five per cent are women. If the cancer is treated adequately, the survival rate at 10 years is over 95%. If these patients no longer have access to this treatment, what will their future be? In Canada, the crisis has got so bad that now sick people are worried about other sick people, because this government does not appear to understand how tragic, how catastrophic this is for sick Canadians who need these tests and treatments. We have abandoned our sick. First of all, we denied that the crisis existed and now, we find it "sexy". Such grief, such sorrow? It is difficult to be a Canadian today. Who is going to protect the patients in this country? This medical disaster was foreseeable. Everybody knew this. It was not about if it would happen, but when it would happen.
As the national medical organization, the Canadian Association of Nuclear Medicine, as explained clearly by its president Jean-Luc Urbain, offered its cooperation from the outset. However, the government preferred to use obscure expert consultants. Why this obscurity? Were there any unacknowledged commitments or interests that the people should know about?
In Quebec, our association, in cooperation with Quebec's Ministry of Health, immediately reactivated its crisis cell the day after it was announced, on May 25, 2009, that the Chalk River reactor would be shut down for a prolonged period of time. We in Quebec, unlike the rest of Canada, have 15 positron emission tomography machines, commonly referred to as "PET scans", we were able to immediately mitigate this impact for cancer patients requiring positron emitting tomography by redirecting them to centres set up throughout the province. I would like to thank this government who had the vision to set up this technology throughout the province. In France, there are already 80 clinical centres, and since the main priority is cancer, this number will be brought up to 120.
We then decided to extend hours. As we speak, technologists, doctors and secretaries are contacting patients. We must constantly establish new appointment lists, cancel and postpone appointments and make decisions with respect to priorities. We are also using other radioactive tracers. We therefore totally support the assessment of the problem and the proposals made by the Canadian Association of Nuclear Medicine. We can no longer live with this uncertainty. The sick people in this country have completely lost confidence in our leaders. We need an independent committee to assess the situation. Using the media for diversion or concealing the collateral damage inflicted on patients offers no comfort. We have been thrown head first into a medical emergency.
On Thursday and Friday, several regional centres in Ontario will have to shut down their nuclear medicine service completely because they are out of technetium. The reactors in South Africa and Holland were not operating this week. Sick people need your help. Without exception, the 101 nuclear medicine physicians of Quebec add their voices to those of their nuclear colleagues in the rest of Canada through the Canadian Association of Nuclear Medicine in order to immediately offer their full cooperation to the elected officials of this land.
I am prepared to answer any question you may wish to ask. Thank you.