Tories need plan for isotope shortage: Ignatieff
Written by on February 9th, 2010 in Latest News.
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff is demanding the Harper government unveil its plot to deal with the isotope shortage.
(Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff accused the Conservative government of having no plot of action to deal with a medical isotope shortage expected to worsen later this month.
“This kind of drift has to stop because the health and safety of Canadian patients is at stake,” Ignatieff told reporters on Tuesday.
The Liberals held a roundtable on the isotope shortage on Tuesday, which included domestic and international experts on the issue.
Canada has faced a shortage of medical isotopes, used in nuclear imaging, since a nuclear reactor at Chalk River was shut down in May 2009 after officials learned radioactive water leaking inside.
Ignatieff said the government has to clarify its plans now that the Petton reactor in the Netherlands is scheduled to shut down for six months beginning in February for maintenance.
As well, the National Research Universal reactor in Chalk River, Ont., is not scheduled to be up and running until the end of March.
“The shortages are going to get worse. What’s their plot?” Ignatieff questioned.
Speaking in French, Ignatieff said the Tories are trying to make it sound like “it’s perfectly normal for Canadian patients not to have access to nuclear medicine. We believe on the contrary, that this is really unacceptable.
“There’s no plot of action and Canadian patients who are concerned and who need diagnostic services can’t access them,” Ignatieff said.
Technetium-99 is the most widely used isotope for diagnostic imaging. It accounts for as many as 20 million diagnostic nuclear medical procedures every year. It is used for getting a detailed look at the heart, kidneys, lungs, liver, spleen and bones as well as for blood-flow studies through single-photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT) scans.
