[Hopespringpcsg] FW: FUNDING of ROBOTIC ASSISTED PROSTATE SURGERY X2

[Glen Tolhurst]

Hi all:

Recall that along with the members of our group who have had Robotic
Assisted Prostate Surgery (RAPS), I have "taken on" the Minister of Health
on funding wrt RAPS.

Below is my latest volley sent to the Minister, as well as the MOH & LTC
reply from Oct 2017 as a reference.

Feel free to share it widely throughout your networks.

Take care,

Glen

 

From: Glen Tolhurst [mailto:Glen46Nor at gmail.com] 
Sent: February 21, 2018 10:01 AM
To: 'ehoskins.mpp at liberal.ola.org'
Subject: FUNDING of ROBOTIC ASSISTED PROSTATE SURGERY

 

Minister Hoskins:

I hope you did not presume that the attached response sent by D. Ramanayake
was in anyway adequate.

I circulated it widely amongst PCa support chapters and men treated via
Robotic Assisted Prostate Surgery (RAPS).

The common refrain from them was that it was an "insulting boiler plate"
response from an unknowing bureaucrat.

In fact, one response to it stated "The letter you received is a standard
response that is now being sent out to all patients.it's a shame that there
is a template letter without addressing the constituents individually". This
was reinforced by a similar response sent to a member of the local Prostate
Cancer Support Group which I, by the way, chair, 

I have subsequently done some further digging on the RAPS funding folder.

When accounting for the cost difference per case (disposables) between
robotics and open surgery, there is an incremental cost difference of over
$3000 for robotic cases which very quickly adds up for any hospital. The
base funding by the government barely covers the hospital costs for open
surgery.  It is strongly felt that robotic prostatectomy is the best
approach and is rapidly becoming the standard of care in many industrialized
nations.  The MOH & LTC has never paid for the incremental cost difference
(let alone the robotic equipment maintenance costs etc).  Fundraising and
philanthropy is not sustainable in the long-term and nor should it be in a
publicly funded system where physicians and hospitals have to constantly
lobby to simply meet what should already be a standard of care in a tertiary
care centre in a modern nation.

The closing boiler plate paragraph wrt PSA testing exhibits an astounding
ignorance in that men diagnosed with Prostate Cancer (PCa) seldom exhibit
any symptoms until PCa is well advanced, and often metastatic.  8 men die
every month in Waterloo- Wellington from PCa. Since June 2016, our PCCN
Waterloo-Wellington prostate cancer support group has had 2 members die from
PCa. Both of them joined our group after they were diagnosed with what
proved to be metastatic PCa.

Does it take having MPP's diagnosed with PCa to get the MOH & LTC to meet
the reasonable level of care about men's health to get PSA testing covered
by OHIP and join the level of care of all other provinces?

 

As you read this, do not contemplate having a bureaucrat grind out another
boiler plate response.

Take time to approve funding for RAPS!

 

Remember, you and the Liberal party of Ontario are lagging in the polls
leading up to the June provincial election.

 

Thank you,

 

Glen

 

Glen N. Tolhurst  P.Eng. MBA

Chair PCCN Waterloo- Wellington

web site:  <http://pccn-waterloo-wellington.ca/>
http://pccn-waterloo-wellington.ca/ 

e-mail:  <mailto:info at pccn-waterloo-wellington.ca>
info at pccn-waterloo-wellington.ca 

answering service 226-240-9264

Direct contact via:

Tel (519) 826-0716 

Cell (519) 994-4536

e-mail:  <mailto:Glen46Nor at gmail.com> Glen46Nor at gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

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