photo: D. W. Dorken |
Rocco Gerace, MD Registrar
The data will provide clinicians with the most comprehensive, upto-date picture of the narcotics dispensed to their patients.
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Canada has the world’ s second-highest per capita consumption of prescription opioids. In some parts of the country, drug overdoses are killing more people than motor vehicle accidents. But there is reason to believe that the tide may be turning. Just last month, doctors in Guelph, as part of a pilot project, gained access to data from the Ontario government’ s Narcotics Monitoring System. The data will provide clinicians with the most comprehensive, up-to-date picture of the narcotics dispensed to their patients. In fact, Dr. Eric Hoskins, Ontario Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, has pledged to make the NMS data available to all Ontario prescribers. This critical access is something that we have been asking for since the release of our 2010 report Tackling the Opioid Public Health Crisis. When prescribers have the prescription information available to them for all patients, it will help them decide whether prescribing opioids is indeed the most appropriate |
intervention for a particular patient. And in many cases, it will be the right decision, but it will also alert the prescriber to patients who may be double-doctoring, using multiple pharmacies or diverting opioids.
Dr. Hoskins made his announcement at the Opioid Conference and Summit, convened for the express purpose of identifying a path to take us out of the opioid crisis. Co-hosted by Dr. Jane Philpott, federal Minister of Health, and Dr. Hoskins, the summit brought together policy makers and key stakeholders, such as this College, to draw up a joint action plan. By the conclusion of the two-day summit, each of the 42 different groups in attendance – provincial ministries of health, medical organizations, educational bodies, and regulators – had stepped up to publicly state what exactly they were going to do to make a difference within their particular area of responsibility. Opioid abuse is a complex problem that requires a concerted, coordinated approach among multiple
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Issue 4, 2016 Dialogue 7 |