Natural Resources committee  The only information Dr. Driedger gave me was that it was felt that the medical advisory commission was biased, and that its opinion was not apt to be in line with the philosophy of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

Natural Resources committee  I don't have the exact date. It happened after the new administration, Linda Keen, took over from CNSC. There were two changes that occurred in the arrangements. One was the disbandment of the medical advisory board—the health board, as you would call it. The second change was

Natural Resources committee  I could answer that very quickly. Dr. Al Driedger, one of the godfathers of nuclear medicine, if you will, in Canada, was involved in that advisory committee. It got very testy, according to him, in the sense that the information given from the medical community was felt to be a

Natural Resources committee  The first indication was on November 27, and that's when at my local hospital we received the official notification from GE Healthcare that there would be a temporary disruption in the supply of isotopes to us. We continued on, adjusting accordingly, because we felt this was only

Natural Resources committee  No, this was on behalf of the nuclear medicine association. These were our nuclear medicine specialists across Canada raising the flag of alarm, that there was a significant problem occurring here.

Natural Resources committee  Well, our association put out a survey across Canada to determine what the impact was. We had that information sometime around December 5, stating that, yes, there was a variable impact, and the most significant impacts were, as mentioned, in Ontario, Quebec, and the maritime pro

Natural Resources committee  I have no doubts at all. In my own environment at Renfrew General Hospital, even before the act was passed we were having significant problems in maintaining acute life-threatening situations and assessing acute life-threatening situations. We were very concerned that within the

Natural Resources committee  What I was seeing locally was that things were getting worse on a daily basis. Continuing with that was an unacceptable option for the health of the patients with whom I was dealing. So...no option.

Natural Resources committee  Exactly. Without having those processes in place, you cannot move a dose of isotope across the street. It's against the law and the regulations. We ran into problems with that. We were trying to distribute isotopes locally, but we ran into a barrier because we didn't have the au

Natural Resources committee  That was a press release sent out on December 5 after the board of directors of the Canadian Association of Nuclear Medicine and the Canadian Society of Nuclear Medicine met. We were able to canvass the impact across the country, and we said, whoa, we have major problem here. It

Natural Resources committee  It's actually a very appropriate question. The nuclear medicine community used to have a seat at the table with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. We did have a medical advisory committee there. That was disbanded when the new administration controlling the Canadian Nuclea

Natural Resources committee  Actually, we ran into problems with that. In order to move radioactive material from one site to another, you have to follow regulatory guidelines. That has to be approved by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. That's called the transportation of dangerous goods.

Natural Resources committee  The first notification was from our supplier, GE Healthcare, which supplies our isotopes locally at the Brantford General Hospital. They had advised us that there would be a short-term disruption in the supply of isotopes. They did not know how long it would take, and we were adv

Natural Resources committee  There are essentially two major life-threatening situations. One is the development of pulmonary embolism--blood clots in the lung. The second acute situation is bleeding in the intestinal tract. It is correct that a lot of patients can be taken care of with a spiral CT. If the

Natural Resources committee  Absolutely. There are three patients I know about. One was in Sarnia, where an individual was having an acute gastrointestinal bleed. The isotope was not available at that time, and the surgeon had to manage the patient without knowing exactly where the bleeding was. The patient