media: Doctor-bashing’s not the cure for health-care costs

......the government has gone to war against the doctors again.....

 "Politicians and bureaucrats are always attracted to simple ways to control health-care spending. In the early 1990s, they decided the best way to control spending was to cut down on doctors. This brilliant idea resulted in a doctor shortage that has taken the past decade to fix......

Will Open Government make Canada's health agencies more transparent? -- Canadian Medical Association Journal

"But secrecy and lack of public involvement undermine accountability and the credibility of public institutions and their decisions. They diminish
public trust and feed conspiracy theories."

Clinical practice guidelines as marketing tools -- Collier 183 (3): E141 -- Canadian Medical Association Journal

Blogger's Note: bias exist no matter the source, what does matter is the degree and ultimately the intent (ethics)
 ....................................................................................
"If the guidelines are funded by government or private donors, a bias toward recommending particular pharmaceuticals may not be present."

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

NO RESPONSE BY DECISION-MAKERS - sad! Ovarian Advocate - Caelyx for British Columbia Ovarian Cancer Women - funding vs life

FYI - Re: http://www.ovarianadvocate.ca/



February 17th, 2007


Sandi Pniauskas
117 Glen Hill Drive
Whitby, Ontario, Canada
L1N6Z8

Dear Madam/Sirs;

Re: Funding Caelyx for Treatment of Recurrent Ovarian Cancer in British
Columbia

I am writing to appeal to you to ensure that Caelyx is funded as a
treatment for recurrent ovarian cancer, or as deemed necessary, through
patient/physician decision-making. I do this because I have compassion,
understanding and intimate knowledge of the issues which ovarian cancer
women, their families and their friends face. From the initial
pre-surgery consultations to the last breath our ovarian cancer women
take. Research for decades is proof positive that ovarian cancer is the
most lethal of all gynecologic cancers. And yet, how far have we
actually progressed? 'Lethal' today is still the word used to describe
ovarian cancer. And yet, with our lack of decision-making, we actually
in fact consider our ovarian cancer women to be dispensable. They
deserve every chance and in light of extensive research, which you have
already received, the underlying issue of lack of actual access is not
comprehensible to me. I don't believe that I need to educate you on the
evidence-based research which provides sufficient criteria for simply
funding this chemotherapy for ovarian cancer women - today.

Further, it is irresponsible to confuse the economies of providing
Caelyx to ovarian cancer women in need. Confusion -  because it is with
the hopes of remission or extension of life which no economies can ever
truly value in concrete terms.  Further, recent reports indicate that
B.C.'s coffers are flush with funds. It therefore is a matter of
morality and quite simply the ability of the decision-makers to actually
make this decision.

Let us not continue to make mistakes of the past. The disparities in
access to either life-saving or life-extending therapies across
Provinces are well known. As a matter of fact, in the late 1990's,
Canadian ovarian cancer women experienced the very same issue between
Quebec and Ontario. Taxol was accessible to ovarian cancer women in
Quebec, and not in Ontario. It seems we have not yet learned our lessons
and are repeating the same mistakes but at the sacrifice of the valuable
women in our lives. The obvious lesson is that ovarian cancer does not
care where you live, but your survival does. How sad, in fact, that
while Health Care Ministers, Provincially and at the Federal level
discuss these issues, we simply are unable to recognize the deaths - the
actual realities while we wait for decisions. This is not acceptable and
our ovarian cancer women cannot wait. More importantly, the system which
you represent, has failed these women. It is a moral issue and only a
moral issue which stands in the way of ovarian cancer women in British
Columbia having access to this particularly effective chemotherapy.

Since my ovarian cancer diagnosis in 1999, I have been in the very
fortunate situation of surviving. But this survival comes at a price. It
is and has been typically a short term friendship, but one of value,
which words defy. It is and has been their absolute strength and will to
live and, yes, to suffer in silence, that alone deserves our respect by
doing the 'right thing'. You have the ability to give my ovarian cancer
women friends in British Columbia the will and the ability to improve
their life. This is a 'gift' through really a few strokes of the pen.
You can fund Caelyx for our ovarian cancer women in British Columbia. We
cannot wait, we should not have to wait.



Thank you.

Sincerely,

Sandi Pniauskas
email: sandipn@sympatico.ca