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2010 Mar 25 (Thu)

Cancer Services

Kevin urges the Minister of Health and Wellness to reinstate the Alberta Cancer Board.

 

604 Alberta Hansard Tuesday March 23, 2010

Dr. Taft: Thanks, Mr. Speaker. Cancer diagnosis and treatment require a tightly co-ordinated team that includes pathology, radiology, surgery, pharmacy, nursing, and other services which the Alberta Cancer Board used to provide. The previous minister of health disbanded the Alberta Cancer Board, and that cancer care delivery system is being dismantled. Cancer pathology is being folded into general pathology, cancer pharmacy is being folded into general pharmacy, and so on. To the Minister of Health and Wellness: will the minister do the right thing for Albertans with cancer and restore the Alberta Cancer Board?

Mr. Zwozdesky: Mr. Speaker, the Cancer Board, the Mental Health Board, and AADAC were all amalgamated within the bigger picture of Alberta Health Services and the one superboard, as it’s sometimes

referred to. But I take the member’s question very seriously, and I will undertake to have a look at the comments he just made.

Dr. Taft: Well, that was a pretty weak answer, Mr. Speaker. Given that one of the awful lessons from botched cancer pathology scandals in Newfoundland and elsewhere is that cancer pathology is very specialized, why isn’t the minister taking action to make sure that Alberta’s cancer pathology team isn’t dismantled?

Mr. Zwozdesky: Mr. Speaker, I don’t believe there’s any dismantling in the system. In fact, we’re looking to augment it and hire more oncologists. There’s quite an active recruitment process going on right now. I think that people in this province have grown accustomed to the fact that the oncologists we have in the two larger centres that treat cancer patients, not to mention the three that are coming on stream through the radiation therapy corridor, provide outstanding service. I think they need our support at this time.

Dr. Taft: Well, those oncologists are calling me, and they’re expressing the concern, so this minister had better look into it. How does the minister expect a fractured system, in which pharmacy, pathology, surgery, nursing, radiology, and all other services are reporting along different lines, to shorten wait times?

Mr. Zwozdesky: Well, Mr. Speaker, part of that is exactly the point of having one centralized board, so all of that information that was just alluded to can be looked at, can be collected in a consistent fashion with consistent gathering of information so that we can come up with that province-wide plan that will help improve things, not make them worse. We’re trying to work hard to get things better. That’s why we’ve added the money to the budget, and that’s why we’re coming out with a more predictable and stable five-year funding plan. We’re going to fix that.

 

 

Date: Thu Mar 25 21:45:08 MDT 2010 Author: Rebecca IP: 68.149.137.22