Changes to the province’s Prescription Drugs Cost Assistance Act have been proclaimed to strengthen monitoring and improve prescribing practices for narcotics and other controlled drugs. This announcement was made by Health Minister Theresa Oswald.
“Narcotics are very strong drugs that have the potential to be dangerous if used incorrectly and this new legislation builds on our work to improve prescribing and dispensing of these prescription drugs,” said Oswald. “The changes we proclaimed today have strengthened the measures already in place to ensure that these drugs are available to people who need them.”
The changes include:
• establishing a new category of drugs, called monitored drugs, which will increase the monitoring of the prescribing, dispensing and use of specific drugs listed in the legislation;
• allowing regulatory bodies, such as the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba, to work with Manitoba Health to monitor prescribing practices;
• establishing an advisory committee of experts to advise the minister of health to help identify patterns or trends that might indicate inappropriate prescribing, dispensing, abuse or misuse of monitored drugs.
“We believe that it is important to actively review prescribing and dispensing of drugs for the education of prescribers and for patient safety,” said Dr. Bill Pope, registrar and chief executive officer, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba. “We look forward to working with the Manitoba Pharmaceutical Association and Manitoba Health to implement this educational and review process.”
The new legislation builds on other work to address monitoring and prescribing of narcotics including the province’s strategy specifically targeting OxyContin. The strategy includes:
• moving OxyContin to part three of the Provincial Drug Program Formulary in March 2010 to increase prescribing accountability and recently extending coverage to include OxyNEO, a newer version of the drug that offers pain management with a lower risk of misuse;
• initiating an education campaign; and
• providing training intended to increase the number of physicians with a methadone licence.
