Newfoundland and Labrador’s recently launched Pharmacy Network hopes to decrease the sale of prescription drugs on the street and reduce adverse drug interactions, especially for those with complex drug therapies, like senior citizens.
“(Currently), medication information is fragmented across pharmacies and hospitals,” said Tom Osborne, Minister of Health and Community Services, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. “Information is collected at each pharmacy, but health professionals at other locations can’t see it.”
They need this information to get a complete picture of a person’s medical profile to help make decisions when providing medications or medical care, he said. This will help stop “double-doctoring” which can happen accidentally when a patient is seeing two doctors, or when a patient seeks multiple prescriptions for the same drug for sale on the street.