Mr. Callaghan, thank you for your service.
Ms. Northey, thank you for creating that context because, in your description of your experience at the Mayo Clinic, it very much seems that there is a solution there.
One of the things that the defence ombudsman recommended was that we start from scratch. We take this very convoluted system and we simply start from scratch and build something that works. One of the things that bothered me, and I never really got an answer that I could understand, was the fact that DND does the analysis. You go to the doctor if you're a reservist or if you're a member of CAF and that individual takes note of what's going on with you.
When it comes time for the benefit piece, those medical reports are transferred to VAC. I was assured that VAC had the expertise to look at those medical reports and make a good decision. It struck me that if I'm going to a medical specialist, they shouldn't just be charting what is going on with me, they should be making observations and be able to submit a clinical report based on their expertise. There seems to be a gap there.
Walter, did you feel there was a gap and were you thrown into an adversarial situation in your struggle to get what you needed?