When Dr. Blair Speaks.....

......We Listen

BlueRibbonPanelsCanCutUsToPieces
PolicyMattersVille


Dr. David Blair is a family physician in Saanich British Columbia.

And he is not happy that the "Pharmaceutical Task Force Report" , which was generated by a 'blue ribbon panel' that was commissioned by the government of Gordon Campbell, is now being used by the government of Gordon Campbell to kill the funding for a pre-existing program called the "Therapeutics Initiative".

The following are excerpts from Dr. Blair's righteous screed that were published recently in the Victoria Times Colonist:

The recent so-called pharmaceutical task force report commissioned by the health minister to review pharmaceuticals selected for PharmaCare funding is, in part, a dreadful hatchet job on a valuable made-in-B.C. program, the Therapeutics Initiative.

{snip}

Why would any ministry set out to silence its best source of advice on the rational expenditure of public funds for prescription drugs? Why would a program producing so much good work, for an annual expenditure roughly equal to three days' worth of the annual increase in PharmaCare costs, be a target?

Since its beginning the TI has produced close to 70 soundly researched and carefully written newsletters, covering topics from Cox-2 inhibitors to selection of appropriate treatment targets for Type 2 diabetes to an evidence-based look at drugs for Alzheimer's disease. And it has done a lot of other educational programs benefiting British Columbians by better informing prescribing physicians.

(Colby) Cosh is right. The task force criticism of the initiative's "resistance to meaningful stakeholder input" is code for letting the pharmaceutical industry run the show on its costly terms, where cost increases to PharmaCare are regularly three or even four times the annual inflation in other health-care sectors.

Grassroots organizations (read Astroturf organizations funded by the pharmaceutical industry) would like more say, too. So would "disease experts," of which there are now precious few in the province who have not found the trough of Big Pharma largesse......

We agree fully with Dr. Blair.

Because what we have here is a shill factory working flat-out, at full capacity.

And the 'product' of that factory are 500 lb crap hammers that are being used to pound a good program to pieces because that program is standing in the way of the shills' paymasters' ability to make rapacious profits on the backs of all British Columbians.

And the work of this shill factory is being fully facilitated by our own government.


OK?

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Gosh, wonder who is lobbying the government of Mr. Gordon Campbell on behalf of the Pharmaceutical Industry? Might just have to go and look that up (just plug "health" into the "lobbying activities by agency" box, hit run and then search the file using the kewword "pharma")
Thanks to Mr. Willcocks for bringing Dr. Blair's piece to our attention.


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