New Brunswick moves to create prescription drug monitoring program to help curb abuse

摘要

Pharmacists in New Brunswick will soon have a new tool for identifying people who may be trying to fill multiple prescriptions for narcotics and other controlled drugs. The provincial government introduced legislation in late November to create an electronic prescription monitoring program, which will give pharmacists, physicians and dentists real-time access to a patient's drug history with monitored drugs, including narcotic analgesics such as oxycodone and dilaudid. There have been numerous calls for such a monitoring program in the province, including from coroner's inquests in 2002,2004 and 2006 that investigated deaths from prescription drug overdoses. Pharmacists have been anxious to see the program implemented as well, says Paul Blanchard, executive director of the New Brunswick Pharmacists' Association (NBPA).