Close X
Wednesday, December 11, 2024
ADVT 
National

Groups Urge B.C. To Follow Ontario, Quebec By Banning Pay-for-Plasma Clinics

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 11 May, 2016 11:06 AM
    VICTORIA — A group that fought to ban pay-for-plasma clinics in Ontario has taken its fight to British Columbia, joining the NDP Opposition in its call against allowing such facilities in the province.
     
    Members of BloodWatch.org were in the legislature Tuesday, when health critic Judy Darcy introduced a private member's bill in hopes of banning companies from compensating donors for plasma, the straw-coloured liquid part of blood used for various medical treatments.
     
    The BC Hemophiliac Society and the B.C. Health Coalition were also at the legislature to back the bill that is modelled after legislation banning payment in Ontario.
     
    BloodWatch.org spokeswoman Kat Lanteigne said outside the legislature that Canadian Blood Services has strict standards for people who donate blood and a private company that collects plasma may not have enough oversight.
     
    She said safeguards may not exist when the plasma is collected, or when it's exported to another country to be made into biological medication that could then be sold back in Canada.
     
    "That is confounding to me why any health minister would ever back that up," she said, adding blood and blood products should remain a public resource, collected from unpaid volunteers.
     
    The company that says it screens all applicants before accepting plasma donations has been in talks with the B.C. government since 2014 about operating clinics in the Vancouver area. Health Minister Terry Lake has said he is open to allowing them.
     
     
    Manitoba has a pay-for-plasma clinic, as does Saskatchewan, where it is operated by Canadian Plasma Resources, which pays donors $25 in the form of a tax receipt or a reloadable credit card in that amount.
     
    Lanteigne said Canada's tainted blood supply scandal during the 1980s led to the highest safeguards in the world after 30,000 people who received blood transfusions were allegedly infected with HIV or Hepatitis C.
     
    The not-for-profit organization Canadian Blood Services manages the supply of blood and blood products across the country. Its safeguards are the result of the landmark Krever Inquiry, which recommended that donors should not be paid.
     
    The four-year inquiry led by retired judge Horace Krever was tabled in the mid-1990s and heard from people who were living with the tragic consequences of contaminated blood.
     
    B.C. Health Coalition spokesman Adam Lynes-Ford said a family that was impacted by the health scandal was at the legislature Tuesday.
     
    He said Darlene Taylor testified at the Krever inquiry about her two sons receiving tainted blood and that one of them died of AIDS in 1993.
     
    Taylor was in disbelief that the possibility of private companies collecting plasma was even being discussed at the legislature, he said.
     
    Curtis Brandell, 44, is a hemophiliac whose life depends on receiving blood transfusions because his body doesn't have normal clotting abilities, meaning he could bleed for a long time after an injury.
     
     
    "I'm absolutely petrified," he said outside the legislature about the possibility that a third province could allow a private company to collect plasma. 
     
    The federal NDP has also called on Ottawa to ban private, for-profit plasma clinics, citing safety concerns.

    MORE National ARTICLES

    Munchable Pot Goodies Pose Health Risks, Especially To Kids, Federal Paper Warns

    Munchable Pot Goodies Pose Health Risks, Especially To Kids, Federal Paper Warns
    It flags the public safety concern as one of the many obstacles Canada must negotiate on the path to regulating the drug, drawing on tragic lessons from Colorado.

    Munchable Pot Goodies Pose Health Risks, Especially To Kids, Federal Paper Warns

    Switch To Jail Uniforms Takes Away Pride And Dignity, Inmate Says

    Switch To Jail Uniforms Takes Away Pride And Dignity, Inmate Says
    If it's true that clothes make the man, convicted robber Kevin Roberts says wearing orange coveralls at Her Majesty's Penitentiary in St. John's, N.L., isn't making him a better one.

    Switch To Jail Uniforms Takes Away Pride And Dignity, Inmate Says

    Long-Form Census Forms Return To Mailboxes This Week After Absence

    Long-Form Census Forms Return To Mailboxes This Week After Absence
    Monday marks the start of mailings from Statistics Canada of census surveys, including the return of the mandatory, long-form questionnaire that was replaced with a voluntary survey five years ago.

    Long-Form Census Forms Return To Mailboxes This Week After Absence

    Senate And P.E.I. Gear Up For Mike Duffy's Expected Return This Week

    Senate And P.E.I. Gear Up For Mike Duffy's Expected Return This Week
    Canadians could be forgiven for assuming P.E.I. residents are all feeling a sense of relief as Sen. Mike Duffy — the Island's most high-profile political export — prepares to return to the Senate

    Senate And P.E.I. Gear Up For Mike Duffy's Expected Return This Week

    Reena Virk Murder: Vancouver Teen Killer Kelly Ellard Seeks Day Parole After 18 Years

    Reena Virk Murder: Vancouver Teen Killer Kelly Ellard Seeks Day Parole After 18 Years
    Kelly Ellard was 15 years old in November 1997 when she smashed Virk's head against a tree and then held the Grade 9 student's head underwater until she stopped moving.

    Reena Virk Murder: Vancouver Teen Killer Kelly Ellard Seeks Day Parole After 18 Years

    Justin Trudeau Says Ottawa Continues To Negotiate With Bombardier

    Justin Trudeau Says Ottawa Continues To Negotiate With Bombardier
    Trudeau praised the aircraft manufacturer's CSeries jets today but did not provide any further details on whether Ottawa would grant the company's request for federal funding.

    Justin Trudeau Says Ottawa Continues To Negotiate With Bombardier