Chemotherapy dilution 'not a minor misunderstanding'

Nickel Belt MPP and NDP health and long-term care critic France Gélinas is criticizing the province in the wake of a report by Dr. Jake Thiessen examining dilution of chemotherapy drugs at four Ontario hospitals and one in New Brunswick.

She said the report does not answer the question of why the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care failed to provide appropriate oversight of our health-care system.

“Hundreds of Ontarians received the wrong dose of a life-saving drug,” said Gélinas in a press release.

“That’s not a minor misunderstanding, but a total lack of appropriate oversight. The buck must stop with the province and the minister of health.

“The first priority of the Ministry of Health is to ensure oversight of our health-care system to ensure quality care and that patients are safe. The recommendations in this report don’t erase the fact that the health minister failed to do her job.”

Among the recommendations in Thiessen's report are mandating Health Canada to regulate all drug preparation entities and services and requiring the Ontario College of Pharmacists to licence hospital pharmacies.

A press release from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care said the province is taking action to make the province's cancer system safer for patients following the release of the report.

The province will be introducing legislation this fall which would, if approved and passed, authorize the Ontario College of Pharmacists to inspect and license hospital pharmacies.

Our government fully endorses Dr. Thiessen’s recommendations and looks forward to working with Health Canada and our other health sector partners to act on them,” said Minister of Health and Long-Term Care Deb Matthews, in a press release.

“As part of our efforts we will introduce legislation in the fall to further enhance Ontario’s cancer drug supply system. Patients and their families deserve to have utmost confidence that they are receiving the highest quality and most effective chemotherapy treatment available and we will work tirelessly to build on what we have already done to safeguard the system.”

This is not the first time that the Minister of Health failed to provide the appropriate oversight, Gélinas said.

The recently publicized failure to provide annual nursing home inspections and the “debacle” at Ornge are also examples of failed oversight, a press release from the MPP said.

“Ontarians need to have confidence in their health care system, but yet again we see that their confidence is shaken,” said Gélinas.