Providing framework to assisted reproduction
This morning, the Associate Director General (Medical Affairs) and Director of Professional Services Dr. Ewa Sidorowicz presented to the National Assembly, during public hearings on Bill 20, the MUHC submission offering a constructive, systemic and integrated vision of reproductive medicine within the academic health network. She was accompanied by Dr. William Buckett, medical director of the Centre for Reproductive Medicine of the MUHC, Lise Doiron, nurse manager the Centre, and Dr. Samuel Benaroya, vice-principal (Health Affairs) and vice dean, Faculty Medicine, McGill University.
"We contend that university health institutions, particularly the MUHC, constitute centres of excellence in reproductive medicine, which should be maintained and protected by the bill. The CHUs, and the professionals who work there, can best determine what is medically required for their patients and refer them to the appropriate solution,” says Dr. Sidorowicz. “This approach is the best way to optimal interventions, evidence based while maximizing results, at socially acceptable costs."
The MUHC intervention focused exclusively on medically assisted reproduction. It is an urgent and critical issue for the MUHC, for McGill University and the McGill RUIS. It is also a vital issue for multiple thousands of couples in Quebec who trust the MUHC that stands for 50 years by its volume of clinical activities (notably the largest number of IVF cycles performed in hospitals) by its teaching and research programs. The MUHC is the only university hospital to offer the full range of infertility treatment and reproductive endocrinology and the only centre for the whole territory of the RUIS.
"The provisions of Bill 20 question the very existence of our Centre. The prospect of our Centre disappearing or simply falling below an acceptable threshold of activities to support its teaching and research missions would cost Quebec a critical element of its public reproductive medicine, a scientific flagship and ambassador to the world. That is why we have chosen to offer concrete recommendations for maintaining a medically assisted reproductive program in the public sector, with clear guidelines,” concluded Dr. Sidorowicz.
A copy of the MUHC submission on Bill 20 is available here.
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About the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC): One of the world’s foremost academic health centres, the MUHC offers exceptional and integrated patient-centric care, research, teaching and technology assessment. Highly committed to the continuum of care in its community and affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University, The Montreal Children's Hospital, the Montreal General Hospital, the Royal Victoria Hospital, the Montreal Neurological Hospital, the Montreal Chest Institute and the Lachine Hospital of the MUHC value multidisciplinary service throughout the lifespan, innovative technologies and practices, strategic partnerships and leadership in knowledge transfer.