John Crown: Move aside bureaucrats and let us take a lead

".....Professional managers have their place in any institution – but where they set the agenda it is likely to be serving political edicts to balance budgets and meet targets. “That often means the welfare of patients comes second, and also – and this may be an old-fashioned view – I do not think that doctors act solely in their own self-interests. We have higher ethical considerations than other professions.” ...........

John Crown: Move aside bureaucrats and let us take a lead:

Outspoken oncologists, willing to take on ‘the powers that be’, can often play a very helpful role in galvanising administrators and policy makers and pushing the priorities of clinicians higher up the agenda. There are notable such characters around Europe, but one oncologist has taken a bigger step into the realm of politics by becoming a senator in his parliament – from where he is able to directly challenge politicians and bureaucrats with the protection of parliamentary privilege.

Letter to Saskatchewan Minister of Health: Ovarian Cancer Awareness & Treatment in Saskatchewan

May 19, 2009
Honorable Don McMorris
Minister of Health
Government of Saskatchewan
Room 302, Legislative Building
2405 Legislative Drive
Regina, SK
S4S 0B3

Dear Minister McMorris:

It has been an interesting time since we first wrote to you November 2008, and since we provided our
recommendations for gynecological oncology care for the women of Saskatchewan earlier in the spring of 2008.

We have learned so much more about how the medical profession operates, how medical care is delivered in
Saskatchewan, about guidelines, standards and recommendations by governing bodies and other jurisdictions.

And thank you to the good help of Sophie Ferre of your office, we have initiated relationships with some of the core executives responsible for decision making regarding gynecological oncology in our province. And we will continue to do this of course.

Also since our beginning with your office our group has more than doubled and support for our work is coming from many different directions, and we are able to provide support for more patients and their families.

This is all very positive and provides us with hope and motivation to continue.

Also hopeful is the fact not one single person, professional, executive, representative we have met with is against our recommendations. In fact, quite the reverse is true. We have been told that our recommendations are essential to improved survival outcomes for a very lethal cancer, that our recommendations are credible, that other groups concerned about gynecologic cancers has similar recommendations.

While other jurisdictions in Canada may not have written recommendations such as ours, all jurisdictions in Canada except Saskatchewan provide the care we are looking for from gynecologic
oncology units including intraperitoneal chemotherapy (IP).
The reasons for not doing this yet vary and have included the gaps between bureaucracies prevent it in various ways (jurisdictions, funding), the government needs to agree to funding, awareness needs to be improved.

We fully expected that on May 14th the meeting between the Saskatchewan gynecologic oncologists and the various bureaucracies would lead to some positive announcements for the women in our province.

Rather, we hear that there has been an agreement to continue to discuss Gynecologic Oncology units only until June 30th. No agreement ensuring we would not be losing our two specialists in Regina. No announcement about working groups that involve patient input.

We understand that the Regina gynecologic oncologists have not changed their plans to close their office September 1st. And we want to know what is happening with new patients.

Throughout, we have been very patient but now we feel it is urgent that we meet with you, as we requested back in November.

Please, Minister McMorris, it is time for us to present our case to you and find out what the barriers are to keeping our specialists in Saskatchewan.

Thank you for your consideration. We feel this is an urgent matter and would appreciate hearing back from
you very soon.

Sincerely,
Darlene Gray
A Director Of
Ovarian Cancer Awareness & Treatment in Saskatchewan
OCATS
6438 – 7th Avenue N, Regina, SK, S4T 6X7, Ph 306-775-1848, Fx 306-775-1853, darlenegray@sasktel.net Facebook