Chamber and committees

I have learned a lot from the discussions, but there is something else that I have been wondering about. In lots of our evidence, particularly the written evidence, there has been discussion about support for patients and staff in this process. Can you say a few words about whether it would be helpful for psychological support, perhaps, to be available to staff and patients involved in the process? Do you think that, before going through the process, patients should have some specific support?

Do you have a view on patients receiving counselling? In your last response, you talked about others assessing what people need in response to the position in which they find themselves.

That is very helpful. Thank you.

Thank you. I think that some other colleagues have questions around safeguarding, so I will go back to the convener.

I thank our guests for agreeing to speak to us. Much of what I am going to ask about might have been covered but, in the interests of clarity, I will ask my question, which is about the recorded numbers. We know that the Government has to report on anyone who has accessed MAID. Could you give us a sense of where you think the numbers are in terms of what was anticipated prior to the legislation? We see that there was a rise between 2019 and 2022. Have you considered what might have caused that rise? Can you give us some sense of the situation in Canada in terms of the actual numbers? I ask Dr Green to respond first.

Dr Coelho, would you like to respond?

One of the key provisions in the bill is about safeguarding. The assessing doctor is required to form an opinion on whether the person has been subjected to any pressure. Have there been cases in which anything has been picked up in that regard? Within your structures, is there a robust process to ensure that things are picked up or that there are at least conversations with people who might choose to go down this route?

Professor White, you spoke about training. Are parts of the training about picking up on those elements?

As elected members, we often hear people say that people might wish to go down this road because they feel as though they are a burden to their family or to the medical practitioners who are so caring with them. I want to be clear that, based on what you said earlier, you have robust systems in place to ensure that people know all the options and support that are available to terms of palliative care and can easily access them.

Good morning, and thank you for coming to give evidence to the committee.

Dr Cass appeared before the committee and provided a full, professional and caring update to us about her review. The Government has accepted the Cass review in full.

In the statement that the Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health made to Parliament, she talked about the work that we need to do to make sure that we are providing the best care for the young people who are affected by that work. She also talked about a task and finish group. Can you update us on what that means and what stage the work is at? Is it complete, or do we still have things that we need to do? What is the timeframe for those things?