We applaud Health Canada’s efforts to support pharmacy innovation in Canada and enable pharmacists and technicians to more fully use their expertise relating to prescriptions for controlled drugs and substances. We believe the current proposed regulations will ensure that community pharmacies and their teams can more efficiently, effectively and safely continue to meet the healthcare and medication needs of Canadians. We further believe that our additional recommendations will also enable Canada’s healthcare system to better respond to future needs in the years to come.
We offered some feedback and considerations in four main areas:
- Increasing the ability of pharmacies to provide central fill services
- Expanding the ability of pharmacy teams to support better medication management of opioid prescriptions and other controlled substance prescriptions
- Clarification on the role of e-prescribing specific to prescriptions for controlled substances
- Including pharmacists as practitioners/prescribers of controlled drugs and substances