Victoria lawyer gets second chance to fight prostate screening fee
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Updated: July 06, 2009 2:10 PM
Victoria lawyer Laurence Armstrong has been granted a second chance to make his case for free prostate screening tests to the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.
In December 2006, Armstrong spent three days before the tribunal arguing that men and women should have equal access to cancer screening tests.
It’s unfair, he argued, that men over the age of 40 must pay $30 each year for a prostate specific antigen test while women receive annual mammograms for free.
After reviewing the evidence for a year, the tribunal dismissed Armstrong’s complaint on the grounds he didn’t establish a good enough case that B.C. Health Ministry’s policies appear discriminatory.
A B.C. Supreme Court judicial review of the decision released last week, however, quashed the decision.
“It’s nice to be right,” said Armstrong. “It just infuriates me that the government has taken this position.”
Because most people can’t afford to hire a lawyer to challenge a $30 bill, Armstrong decided to represent himself in his challenge.
“Five-hundred men a year die of prostate cancer in British Columbia and 90 per cent of them could be cured if cancer was found earlier and the PSA test finds cancer earlier. It’s just too dumb to believe,” said Armstrong.
The Ministry of Health now has three weeks to decide if it will appeal the decision.
“Guided by the experts at the B.C. Cancer Agency, we continue to believe that coverage of the PSA test for screening is not about human rights, but about the efficacy of the test – as the Human Rights Tribunal originally ruled,” wrote Ryan Jabs, communications officer for the ministry.
“The scientific evidence available at this time suggests screening PSA tests would cause more harm than good.”
Since the last hearing, however, two new studies have been published investigating whether regular PSA screenings are beneficial to men.
The first European study shows benefit while the second American study doesn’t, said Andrew Coldman, vice-president of population oncology with B.C. Cancer Agency.
“It’s quite a mess, really,” he said of the conflicting results. “The evidence to date suggests that certainly if PSA screening is good, you certainly don’t need to screen annually.”
The Canadian Cancer Agency aims to review the results and make new recommendations to the Ministry of Health by this fall.
rholmen@saanichnews.com
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