Letter To Your Electoral District Candidates and/or Party Leaders.
Please copy and paste the letter below into your own word processing program, filling in the Italicized areas as it applies to you.
(Your personal info goes here
including YOUR contact info)
Dear (please insert the candidate’s name)
I am writing to you as a member of COPD Canada Patient Network. With a General Election now scheduled for October 14th, I and our organization, would like to know how you and your party plan to address one of the fastest growing and most expensive health problems in our country.
COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), is the 4th largest cause of death worldwide, and is the only one of the four increasing. It is estimated that approximately 1.5 million Canadians suffer from this disease (750,000 diagnosed and a further 750,000 still undiagnosed) and at $438.7 million in acute care inpatient cost, it is the third most expensive medical condition in the country, and this does not include costs of pneumonia and influenza, costs which are largely due to COPD. The total economic burden for COPD was estimated at $1,720,000,000 for Canada in 2000, plus a large proportion of the $1,423,400,000 total economic burden for influenza/pneumonia.
See http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/2007/lbrdc-vsmrc/pdf/PHAC-Respiratory-WEB-eng.pdf and
http://www.lung.ca/pdf/Lung_Health_Framework_August2008.pdf for more detailed information).
The truly sad thing is that while pulmonary rehabilitation (and active Chronic Disease Management) have been known for a long time to be very effective in reducing overall health care costs for people with COPD (as well as very significantly improving their quality of life), only approximately 2 % of those with COPD (about 1 in 80 patients) have access to such programs, and almost all of these are located in areas served by the major city hospitals within the larger provinces.With Health Care Costs a major concern across the country this is a huge part of the problem.
Early diagnosis is critical and testing can be performed very inexpensively as part of an annual physical. Education for family physicians in early detection, treatment and support programs is badly needed. Pulmonary rehab, as part of Chronic Disease Management is one of the most effective ways to treat COPD, resulting in huge cost savings due to reduced hospital/ER visits and shorter stays.
With an estimated 1,500,000 people in Canada with COPD, and growing at an alarming rate, this is not an issue that can be ignored any longer. The World Health Organization predicts that by 2030 this disease will jump from #4 to #3.
Please reply to let me/us know how you plan to address this problem if elected.
Yours Truly,
Member of COPD Canada Patient Network
(write your signature here)
(Type your name here)