Madam Speaker, my question is for the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health.
On March 27 of this year, Statistics Canada released its study on 39 medical procedures performed in hospitals across Canada. One of the procedures studied was hysterectomies. The hysterectomies that are performed on the women in my riding of Cumberland-Colchester are at a very high rate, as a matter of fact an alarming rate, the highest in the country. We have almost 1,137 hysterectomies performed per 100,000 women, when the national average is approximately 437.
In the county next to mine, Annapolis Valley, the rate is 137 per 100,000 women. That is a significant spread. Ten times more hysterectomies are performed in Cumberland County than in Annapolis County and they are in the same province of Canada.
This is a health issue. We know there are major causes of female problems that warrant hysterectomies. The number one cause is cancer of the ovaries, the cervix or the uterus; trophoblastic disease is another cause; fibroids; endometriosis; birth control in women where pregnancy would have meant certain death; and a few other reasons, such as Down's Syndrome, resulting in mentally handicapped children.
Hysterectomies are a very normal procedure, but they are an invasion of women's health. That concerns me very definitely and very sincerely.
We have tracked down the sincerity and the integrity of these numbers. They originated in the Department of Health in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and they have been tracked to the hospitals. The numbers have great significance, they have integrity and they are valid.
My question for the parliamentary secretary is, will we investigate this phenomenal anomaly, which is very significant to the invasion of women's health? Whether it is due to overzealous doctors looking for cash crops on surgical procedures or whether it is due to fundamental underlying health problems for the women of Cumberland County, I would ask the parliamentary secretary to pursue this great anomaly.