Letter Dr Anne Synnes, NFUP Program (BC Children's Hospital)

October 9. 2009
Premier Gordon Campbell < premier@gov.bc.ca>
Honorable Mary Polack, Minister Children and Family Development
Minister.MCF@gov.bc.ca
Lesley Du Toit, Deputy Minister, Children and Family Development
MCF.DeputyMinisterOffice@gov.bc.ca


Dear Premier Campbell, Honorable Minister and Deputy Minister,

Your decision to close the office of the provincial Advisor of the Infant Development Program of BC is short sited and ill advised. The decision reveals a lack of understanding of both the role of the lDP and the provincial advisor of the lDP and the anticipated consequences of the closure of this office.
The office of the lDP Provincial Advisor provides the infrastructure to ensure that the lDP provides the best, most efficient and well organized developmental care for our most vulnerable children. The provincial advisor ensures appropriate training for lDP consultants, ongoing education, and the development of standards of practice and quality assurance.
I am writing from the perspective of a neonatologist, a physician who is involved in providing life saving treatments to both very sick and very premature babies and as the medical director of the Neonatal Follow-Up Program where we see the survivors of new invasive technologies for newborns and children.
These new technologies result in many "miracles" and we all celebrate these successes. However, many premature babies survive with some disabilities. The same can be said for children born with heart disease and those needing transplants or other invasive expensive therapies. In Canada, these children still rate the quality of their life as very high.
My clinical experience meeting with these children and their families is they cope very well when community services are available. Without support, a progression from fatigue to marital breakdown, despair and de-compensation start to occur. It is increasingly recognized that these parents often suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. The lDP is the cornerstone of support for the families of these infants up to the age of 3 years.

As physicians we counsel families about the outcomes, both good and bad, of the life saving treatment options we can offer. Our goal is to provide treatments which result in happy healthy children with a good quality of life. Survival is not enough. The closure of the office of the provincial Advisor of the Infant Development Program of BC will change the outcome for these children and their families. There are unlikely to be any cost savings in closing the provincial advisor's office.

The premier and his government have an obligation to either reinstate the office of the provincial Advisor of the Infant Development Program or to tell the physicians and families of British Columbia that he will take responsibility for eroding the foundation of the BC Infant Development Program. The result will affect life and death decisions.

Sincerely,

Anne Synnes MDCM, MHSC, FRCPC
Neonatologist & Director, Neonatal Follow-Up Program
Children's & Women's Health centre of BC
Clinical Associate Professor,
University of British Columbia
4480 Oak St, Room 1R13
Vancouver, BC
Tel: 604-875-2135
Fax: 604-875-3106