UCP should allow clinics to pay for plasma donation
In its first few months of governing, the UCP has set about to quickly and thoroughly dismantle much of the NDP’S legacy.
Hopefully that zeal will lead the new government to revisit one of the NDP’S more low-key policy blunders.
Bill 3, the Voluntary Blood Donations Act, was introduced in early 2017, with the express aim of banning private clinics that compensate plasma donors. No such clinics were in operation here at the time, but a company called Canadian Plasma Resources had reportedly been looking to expand into Alberta.
The NDP tried to frame this as an issue about blood donation, declaring at the time that “donating blood should not be viewed as a business venture, but as a public resource that saves lives every day.”
Quite a non sequitur, to say the least. Canada’s blood donation system was and is completely volunteer-based and we are self-sufficient when it comes to red blood cell collection. The issue of collecting plasma is much different. The NDP unfortunately took a myopic, ideological view of the issue. Hopefully the new government is willing to take a new look at this. When it comes to blood plasma, which is used to produce life-saving pharmaceutical products and other medical therapies, Canada imports close to 80 per cent of our supply from the United States — a country where donor compensation is routine. In fact, earlier this year, Canadian Blood Services warned of a potential shortage of one of the most widely-used plasma-based medications.
Repealing Bill 3 would be a step in the right direction.
The U.S. is actually the only country that is a net exporter of plasma.
In other words, if the U.S. adopted the
NDP’S rigid approach to compensating plasma donors, Canada — and much of the word — would be in a rather dire predicament.
Moreover, it’s incredibly hypocritical to be lamenting the idea of compensating plasma donors when we are so heavily dependent on such a system. It’s also disingenuous to suggest that donor compensation creates any kind of safety issue when, again, we obtain so much of our plasma from the U.S.
The NDP’S approach also appears to be out of step with public opinion on the matter. A poll commissioned by the Consumer Choice Centre and released last week showed that 63 per cent of Canadians — including 65 per cent of Albertans — believe that the compensation of plasma donors is morally appropriate.
Insomuch as other parties still exist here in Alberta, this needn’t be a partisan issue. During the debate around Bill 3, one of the loudest voices of opposition was actually then-liberal leader Dr. David Swann, who noted that “systems allowing for paid plasma donations have had success in other jurisdictions without any of the adverse effects that the NDP are raising as justification for this bill.”
There is no country on Earth that has become self-sufficient in plasma supply through an exclusively volunteer-based donor system. That’s not to say we can’t encourage more volunteer plasma donors, and in fact Canadian Blood Services is doing just that. But we also need to be realistic and pragmatic. Given that Health Canada has closely studied this issue — and tightly regulates this area — there’s no reason at all to prohibit companies like Canadian Plasma Resources from operating here. Hopefully Alberta’s new government understands this.
Unfortunately, the product being collected by Canadian Plasma Resources is currently being sent abroad. That’s not the company’s fault, mind you — Canadian Blood Services has refused to purchase this domestically-sourced plasma, despite it being available at a lower cost than what we’re paying for American plasma. That needs to change, but that’s obviously outside the purview of any provincial government.
Repealing Bill 3 would be a step in the right direction, and would also likely have the added benefit of opening up a wider debate on this issue, and make all Canadians more aware of these important issues.