As part of The Arthritis Society’s advocacy program, The Society’s positions on issues affecting Canadians living with arthritis, advocacy guidelines and patient input submissions on pharmaceuticals are published here.
National Issues
Three national advocacy issues are prioritized for action:
Arthritis Research Funding
To increase funding for arthritis research
Income Supports
To modify the three federal income security programs to make them responsive to the needs of Canadians with episodic disabilities
Primary Care
To invest adequate resources to further refine and implement primary care education and treatment models in arthritis across Canada
Provincial and Territorial Issues
Each divisional advocacy committee will identify the priority for action:
Juvenile Arthritis
Every Canadian child and youth living with arthritis should have timely and equitable access to all of the medications, rehabilitation services and surgical interventions required to optimize their care
Access to treatments
Every Canadian living with arthritis should have timely and equitable access to all of the medications, rehabilitation services and surgical interventions required to optimize their care
Supply/distribution of primary care professionals and specialists
Every Canadian living with arthritis should have timely and equitable access to primary care professionals who have adequate knowledge about the disease, as well as specialists trained to treat and manage their arthritis
Wait times and total joint replacement
For those requiring hip/knee replacements, the total wait time in Canada should not exceed nine months from referral to surgery, and our commitment to timely replacement should now be expanded to include other join
Guidelines for Advocacy Relating to Pharmaceuticals
The Arthritis Society should:
- Make submissions, where relevant, to the Common Drug Review's newly established process for patient input and to similar provincial/territorial processes where these are instituted;
- Where such a process does not exist or is not meaningful, advocate for the inclusion of a process for patient input as an integral part of the drug review process; and
- Advocate for drug review processes at the federal, provincial and territorial levels that are relevant, timely and evidence-based.
The following principles will inform advocacy related to pharmaceuticals:
- The Society will not advocate for any individual pharmaceutical, over-the-counter or therapeutic product; and
- The Society's advocacy messages should reflect that:
- There should be timely access to proven therapies that have been approved for use/marketing in Canada,
- There should be maximum choice in therapies to allow each Canadian and their physicians to select the optimal treatment; and
- Ability to pay should never create a barrier that prevents a Canadian from accessing the necessary therapies as prescribed by their physician.
Patient Input Submissions Related to Pharmaceuticals
All new drugs are submitted for review by the joint Federal/Provincial/Territorial (FPT) Common Drug Review (CDR) which makes recommendations for listing drugs that the federal, provincial and territorial drug plans then consider. The CDR is a program of the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technology in Health (CADTH), an independent, not-for-profit agency, funded by participating governments (all, except Quebec).
CADTH has implemented a process by which patient groups would have input into drug review and decision-making around public drug plan formulary listings. The Arthritis Society develops these patient input submissions whenever a drug of interest to people living with arthritis is under consideration.
CURRENT SUBMISSION
There are no current submissions. If you wish to make a contribution to future submissions for the medications listed below, please e-mail advocacy@arthritis.ca for more information.
PREVIOUS SUBMISSIONS