Health committee  Triaging has had very unfortunate repercussions. It's crucial to ensure the continuity of hospital activities. We have to find a way to make sure patients are moved to appropriate settings after their hospital stay. Patients who are recovering from COVID‑19 should not remain in h

Health committee  No. I think the public sector has the capacity to continue providing care, but outside the hospital setting. Those services could be publicly funded. As far as I'm concerned, patients should not have to pay out of pocket. I don't believe in that. I think the system is very fair a

Health committee  Yes, that's right. A colonoscopy is a technical procedure. Colonoscopies to screen for colorectal cancer shouldn't be performed solely by gastroenterologists. In some provinces and U.S. states, nurse practitioners perform colonoscopies, so other health care professionals can be c

Health committee  The trajectory of a cancer patient involves chronic care punctuated by periods of acute illness. After being diagnosed, the patient needs adjuvant therapies, after which, the patient goes into remission. Patients who go on to experience a relapse require new and more intensive th

Health committee  That's right.

Health committee  Right now, all practising oncologists are seeing patients who unfortunately need to be referred to palliative care. These are patients who could have been cured had they been seen at the onset of symptoms months beforehand. We are seeing situations like that every day. We are enc

Health committee  The Association des médecins hématologues et oncologues du Québec represents 350 members aged 47 on average. Recruitment for this specialty is booming, as the need for oncologists is increasing all the time. We have 55 residents and 22 fellows in medical subspecialties because we

Health committee  Every week, we see patients coming in with cancers that are more advanced than they would have been if those patients had been diagnosed when their symptoms were starting or if they had been screened. As a result, this is, unfortunately, a daily occurrence for oncologists. This

Health committee  Absolutely.

Health committee  In more advanced stages of cancer, each episode of care delivered over a trajectory of a few years costs several tens of thousands of dollars per year. For example, immunotherapy for lung cancer currently costs $35,000 to $50,000 per episode of care. Thus, the costs absorbed by t

Health committee  These are things that could definitely make it easier to access care. A lot of hospitals are outdated. It's also important to understand that the COVID-19 pandemic imposes physical distance. For example, when a common waiting room serves two rooms for ultrasound, two rooms for C

Health committee  I am very concerned. Let's take the example of colon cancer—it always comes back to that example. If you have stage 1 disease, which is very localized, surgery will put an end to the episode. You have an 80% chance of cure, and after that, it's over. However, if the disease has

Health committee  The already very limited resources are running out. Even during the lull we experienced between the second and third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were never able to exceed the maximum activity level of 100%. As a result, we never erased the diagnostic delays that jeopardize

Health committee  I practise medicine, not politics, but we can certainly imagine right now that without major additional investments, the health care system will not survive the financial burden imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Health committee  Good morning, Mr. Chair. I thank you and the members of the committee for your invitation. I am going to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on cancer, a chronic disease with acute episodes of care over a long period of time. It is very different from single episodes of care such as