PC Health Critic questions why cancer patients are still denied access to a technology that saves lives? 

(Toronto) Restricting access to PET scans for cancer patients is unacceptable, especially when other diagnostic tests are being delayed due to a shortage of medical isotopes.

PC Health Critic, Elizabeth Witmer, says it is more imperative than ever that the McGuinty government recognize PET scanners as a vital diagnostic tool for cancer patients that can save lives and alleviate their pain and suffering; just as other governments around the world have done. Witmer’s demand for action is supported by the medical community.

QUOTATIONS:

“It is a travesty that Ontario patients are subjected to inappropriate hurdles to gain access to PET scans,” states Dr. Christopher O’Brien, President of the Ontario Association of Nuclear Medicine. “PET scanning is a proven procedure that improves the management of cancer patients 35% of the time. PET scanners use a medical isotope that does not rely on a nuclear reactor. As such, PET scanners are more protected from diagnostic disruptions, as a result of the shutdown of the Chalk River reactor. In fact, the dependability of PET scanning has helped to minimize the impact of the medical isotope shortage in those countries with access to PET scanners. Regretfully, this is not the case in Ontario.”

“20 years ago, European countries embraced positron emission tomography and offered the technology to their citizens at no cost. Today, PET scans are covered in Istanbul, Kuwait City, Mumbai, Bejing and Melbourne, but not in Toronto,” states Dr. Jean-Luc Urbain, President of the Canadian Association of Nuclear Medicine. ”When it comes to positron emission tomography, Ontario has switched from evidence based medicine to denial based medicine. PET is a technology that saves lives and alleviates the pain and suffering of cancer patients.”

KEY FACTS:

• Clinical trials for this technology have been underway in Ontario for more than 5 years, but were originally to last only 2 years.
• Despite having the 2^nd largest PET infrastructure in Canada, Ontario has the most underutilized machines in the country.
• A single PET centre in Manitoba helps more patients each year than Ontario’s entire PET Registry Program.
• For every 30 cancer patients assessed with a PET scan in Quebec, only 1 patient was scanned in Ontario, in 2006.
• From 2005 to 2008, Ontario had the capacity to perform 30,000 PET scans; however by December 2008, only 4,559 patients had received a publicly funded PET scan in Ontario.
• In September 2007, the Ontario Ombudsman launched an investigation into complaints regarding restricted and unequal access to PET scans.

SOLUTION:

Witmer calls on the government to immediately introduce an implementation plan, with timelines, to achieve the same level of access to PET scanning here in Ontario as in jurisdictions such as Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec.

-30-

For further information contact:

Elizabeth Witmer, MPP

(416) 325-1306