SCAGO advocates and lobbies in a coordinated fashion on key issues to secure and maintain patient access to comprehensive care while empowering the patients and educating the medical and the allied health professionals that treat them.
The goals of the organization are to promote the health of our citizens, reduce pain and suffering, help people to live as nearly normal lives as possible, and to raise the level of awareness and knowledge of the patients in the following key issues:
- Access to quality, equitable care, and existing and emerging therapies
- Improved access to drug therapies
- Treatment and educational guidelines
- Educational guidelines to maintain the same level of education across Canada
- Management of the disease
- Importance of clinical trials, research, and patients’ involvement
- Importance of patient registries
With its vision of optimizing the lives of individuals with SCD, it becomes imperative that SCAGO continues to build a patient-centric culture which will be further enhanced through the establishment of such bodies as the Patient Advisory and Advocacy Council (PAAC)
Purpose of the PAAC
- To help SCAGO identify gaps around the health care services delivered to peers with SCD in Ontario hospitals.
- To serve in an advisory capacity and make recommendations on matters that impact patient and caregiver experiences in Ontario hospitals. The PAAC will work closely with SCAGO on Advocacy matters.
- Members of PAAC will sit on Patient Advisory Committees in Ontario hospitals and work with hospital leadership in the planning, delivery, and evaluation of services across Ontario hospitals.