Over 202,000 Canadians are diagnosed with cancer every year, including an estimated 6,000 new cases diagnosed in Nova Scotia, with approximately 2,700 dying of cancer. Clearly, this life-threatening illness affects entire communities, especially families, friends and co-workers.
The Canadian Cancer Survivor Network (CCSN) is a national network of patients, families, survivors, friends, families, community partners and sponsors. Its mission is to work together by taking action to promote the very best standard of care, support, follow up and quality of life for patients and survivors. It aims to educate the public and policy makers about cancer survivorship and encourage research on ways to alleviate barriers to optimal cancer care in Canada.
The government of Nova Scotia has an important role to play in making sure that everyone diagnosed with cancer has timely access to cancer care and essential medical services as well as access to emergency rooms and the treatment and medications they need. There are 106,000 people in Nova Scotia without a family doctor, and the shortage is going to worsen as a growing number of physicians near retirement, recruitment levels are dwindling and health needs are becoming more and more complex (http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1463162-doctorsns-says-we-need-100-new-doctors-a-year-for-10-years).
The Canadian Cancer Survivor Network is once again asking question of the parties and candidates during the 2017 Nova Scotia election campaign. The responses will be posted in this section as we receive them. We hope that this information will help you when you direct your concerns to your provincial representatives.
Question 1:
The Canadian Medical Association Journal published research in 2014 that showed one in twelve Canadians report they skip doses or decide not to fill prescriptions because of cost.
If elected to government, what will your party do to make prescription medications more affordable?
Question 2:
Healthcare is the number four issue (behind education, labour relations and balanced books) on the minds of NS voters.
If elected:
a) How will your government improve the delivery of cancer care and other healthcare services in NS?
b) Will your government restructure healthcare delivery, and if so, how?
c) How will your government ensure that cancer patients receive the services they need, including home care, financial assistance during recovery and for long-term side effects of cancer and/or treatment?
Question 3:
A key element of ensuring timely treatment for a Canadian cancer patient is ensuring they have access to the medications they need at the time they need them. Unfortunately, this is not always the case in Nova Scotia. As of January 31, 2015 Nova Scotia drug plans covered 23.5% of the 464 new drugs approved by Health Canada from 2004-2013 and the average number days to list the new drug covered under each public drug plan was 681(Coverage for new medicines in Canada’s public drug plans, 2015, Mark Rovere and Dr. Brett J. Skinner).
If elected to government, will you commit to ensuring that all cancer patients in Nova Scotia receive timely access to medications at the time they need it?
Question 4:
Numbers released by Statistics Canada indicate that 11.3 per cent of the population, or just over 100,000 people, did not have access to a health-care provider.
If elected, how will your government ensure that all Nova Scotians have access to a health-care provider?
We thank you for your attention to this important matter.
Yours sincerely,
Canadian Cancer Survivor Network
Official Atlantica Party Response
Thank you for your questions.
As I read through your questions a theme arises, issues, symptoms really, with dealing with Canada’s public health care system. Our party is a grass roots response to the failure of the status-quo to look for new solutions for Nova Scotia (and Canada really) in the 21st century. An example of this is the current health care system in Canada. It is failing and unsustainable; more money or a few new programs here or there will not do. The theme of your questions is the system is failing us.
The party’s response is fundamental restructuring of the Canada Health Care Act is needed, not a patchwork of promises to fund this or expand that within the existing structure.
Here are our thoughts on ‘taking action to promote the very best standard of care, support, follow up and quality of life for patients and survivors.’
In 2014, The Commonwealth Fund, compared the health care systems of 11 major industrialized nations looking at health outcomes such as Quality Care, Access, Efficiency, Equity, and Healthy Lives. Canada came second last close to last place US! Interesting the US and Canada both represent the worst outcomes!
Health care as we have it is not sustainable. It is already showing stress, we all have stories. We cannot continue the model we currently.
Nova Scotia already is spending the highest proportion of its budget on Health Care. More money is not the answer.
But the status-quo does not want a discussion on this so it stifles debate by shouting down ideas and blindly promising even more money to try and paper over what are fundamental problems.
The Atlantica Party’s Solution? Imitate the systems that work best!
The number one ranked system in the world, that of the United Kingdom allows private, for-profit hospitals alongside its public system. Switzerland, Sweden, and Australia, the number two, three, and four ranked systems respectively, all have private and public hospitals, private and public clinics, and all charge patients some form of user fee for access, even in their public systems. In none of these systems do the poor go untreated, and in fact, when it comes to equitable and fast access to care, they all vastly outperform our own.
At the same time, the United Kingdom’s per capita spending on health care, at $3,405 per annum, is only 75 per cent that of our own. And they beat us easily in every outcome.!
This is what they do:
1. Allow both public and private operators in all spheres of health care, as long as it is within a universal system financed by government, as is the case in Europe.
· In Germany for example, private hospitals treat patients who are older on average and who have more serious health conditions than those in public hospitals. The data also show that private for-profit hospitals are better equipped to treat difficult cases and more complex pathologies. Moreover, a larger proportion of beds in these hospitals are reserved for emergency room and intensive care patients.
· In France, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, and many other countries, private hospitals and clinics have long been integrated into the public system. Wait times are shorter in some cases 2 to three times shorter.
· The revenues of privately run medical facilities depend on the number of patients they treat. In order to attract clients, they have to maintain their reputations. In a competitive environment where the money follows the patient, hospitals that cut on service quality drive away their clients and simply cannot make a profit.
· More choice for patients means they can choose which facilities will treat them, and where public funding follows the patient. This promotes accessibility for example for mental health.
2. Charge a small upfront fee say 5% for procedures
· Stifles demand since it reinforces the notion that health care is not ‘free’.
· The fee rises in conjunction with the cost of the service usually up to a limit or threshold. This is similar to how most private insurance plans operate with respect to drug purchases. Up to a ceiling and exemptions in special cases of chronic illness like cancer or low income.
3. Reduce high salaried non-front line administration
4. Note the Atlantica Budget makes no cuts to front line health care spending
5. Allow private billing for health care provision.
· This will also ease supply shortages.
6. Encourage private health insurance
7. Health care is directed by Ottawa. AP would advocate reforming the Health Care Act. If that failed we would be willing to go it alone.
Conclusion
A health care system can remain public and universal all while allowing entrepreneurs to compete to provide services, attract clients, lower costs and provide more choice instead of leaving patients trapped in a public monopoly that fails to respond adequately to the demand for treatment. This will benefit ALL aspects of health care for Nova Scotians.
Cheers,
jd
Jonathan Geoffrey Dean
Leader
Atlantica Party
Official PC Party Response
Official Green Party Response
Brian Pickings (Progressive Conservative Party) Response
Dear Kati Oliver,
Thanks for the email. I’ve been a nominated candidate since July 26, 2016 and would have been happy to meet with your organization and respond to your inquires in the months prior to the election being called. I can’t speak for the PC Party so I encourage you to send your questions to the PC Party for their response.
My focus now is campaigning to try to win this seat. If I am successful please contact me. Hope you understand.
Brian Pickings
Torin Buzek (Green Party) Response
Thomas Trappenburg (Green Party) Response
Dear Kati,
Thank you for the questions. There is so much to say about cancer research, and unfortunately even more about our politics with big pharma. We had a Killam lecture a few years ago who ask why we haven’t cured cancer yet, and the answer had little to do with science and more with lawyers.
Regards, Thomas
Cecile Vigneault (Green Party) Response
Thank you for the questions.
My mother had pancreatic cancer and refused treatment as she thought they would make her health worse. She lived a year after being diagnosed but she lived it to the fullest. My girlfriend is a survivor of breast cancer for over 10 years and she believed in the cancer treatments.
Before I begin to answer your questions, I was introduced to a gentleman of the 1930’s, Mr. Royal Rife. Please check out Wikipedia on Royal Rife. ” His beam ray device of his invention would weaken or destroy the pathogens by energetically exciting destructive resonances in their constituent chemicals”. Think what would happen to the Institution of Drug Companies. – Non existence. If a pathogens frequency could be weaken or destroyed then the body, mind and soul would stay intact. Think of the Cancer Institution – would it still exist if cancer pathogens were destroyed. Alzheimer, Parkinson, Arthritis..etc.
Thomas Clement Douglas , Premier of Saskatchewan wrote “The inescapable fact is that when we build a society based on greed, selfishness and ruthless competition, the fruits we can expect o reap are economic insecurity at home and international discord abroad”. If Tommy Douglas were alive today, where do you think he would place Drug Companies in retrospect.
First of all your questions of what can the Green Party do if we are in power. We bounce from one party to another at election time; and within that four year mandate citizens have great expectation from promises during a campaign; and we now see from the past the promises are not or can not be met.
All the questions interlock with each other
We need a National Drug Program. We are at the mercy of Drug Companies and it would like to see this changed. There are many people who live below the poverty level (Statistic Canada can’t give you any answer to “at what level is income is considered poverty”!.
I would support a wider access to opening the relationship between Medical Doctors and Naturopathic Doctors to allow patients a choice of which health care remedy would be more beneficial to them. I would support a study then of what remedy, be it traditional or holistic, works for the individual. In the past, Vancouver General Hospital opened up a department to research why so many of west coast residents were taken alternative medicine. I would support a National Program to do this research.
The Canadian Institute of Health information indicates NS has the highest doctor to patient ratio in the country(includes family doctors and specialists), however Doctors NS.report that doctors provide specialized services in NS to people from NB, PEI and NF; teaches the next generation of upcoming doctors and specialist; also doctors work with researchers to understand the effects of drugs. There is little time spent in family practice anymore.
For me, I believe RNs scope of practice ought to be broaden. If there is a national program that all nurses (Nurse Practitioners and RN) should be able to complete the program in the province of their choice and work in the province of their choice.. All foreign Health care professionals ought to able to meet our requirement in a shorter time frame; eliminate the red tapes and include mentorship for a year or so to determine proper qualification. I also believe students who want to be part of the Health Care service (be it Medical Doctors or RNs, or Nurse Practitioners, or Naturopathic Doctors, Specialist) to get their training in a medical facility versus a post secondary facility. Our hospitals and Health care facilities ought to have the latest technology so one isn’t drained with paper work.
We have to work in establishing more community hospitals that can run independently,where communities work together. Sutherland Harris Memorial Hospital (built in 1966 after replacing an older hospital built in the 40’s) was a community hospital funded by its Foundation. It stopped being a true hospital once the government stepped it. It is the home for the Veterans, Restorative care, Blood Clinic, and doctors’ office,.
I haven’t answered directly as I don’t have the answers . We see what is lacking as questions like yours comes to us. The Green Party wants to address these issues. Even outside the realm of the Green Party, the biggest advice for all is TO ADVOCATE FOR YOURSELF WHEN IT COMES TO YOUR HEALTH.
Sincerely,
Cecile Vigneault
Pictou West
Green Party NS
Kathaleen Milan (Green Party) Response
- first line affordable medications
- support inter-professional health care through providing and networking physiotherapists, dieticians, nutritionists, nurse practitioners, etc., reducing the burden on doctors and averting wait times
- employ patient navigators to facilitate timely access to mental health and addictions care
- regulate the responsible use of marijuana once federally legalized and ensure it is available for medical purposes
- provide community-based end-of-life care
- provide financial incentives to encourage health practitioners to practice in underserviced communities, including partial or full forgiving of student loans based on length of service
- ensure the development of multi-level Long Term Care facilities to decrease the current cruel practice of separating couples who have different care needs
- reduce administrative burden in health care
- promoting wellness means supporting people to take active, lifelong measures to stay as healthy as possible