Province to ban compensation for blood donations
Ontario’s new health minister is going ahead with legislation to ban “pay for plasma” clinics.
This follows the opening of two clinics – one in Toronto, one in Hamilton. The clinics planned to entice donors with a $25 VISA card or a charity donation in their name. but this legislation would prohibit payments to people for blood and plasma.
The Ontario government would also ban reimbursing people for expenses and other compensation. Dr Eric Hoskins says the Liberals want to protect voluntary blood and plasma donations in Ontario.
“We’ve heard from many health care organizations and individual Ontarians who are opposed to private, for-profit plasma collection. As a government, we agree, and we stand firmly against payment for blood or plasma donations in Ontario. That’s why our government’s taking steps to protect the integrity of our public blood donation system, and to avoid the development of a parallel private collection system in Ontario.”
The bill will also incorporate other changes recommended to hospital pharmaceuticals.
This comes after a review that looked into Hamilton-based Marchese Hospital Solutions. They provided five hospitals in Ontario and New Brunswick with diluted chemotherapy drugs that were administered to over 1200 patients.
The proposed measures would give the Ontario College of Pharmacists the power to inspect and license hospital pharmacies.
