Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In February 2008 I asked the Minister of Health and Social Services some questions about the palliative care drug approval process for extended health care benefits. In April I received a response from the Minister indicating that the department is taking steps to simplify the approval process for approving coverage of palliative care drugs and that something would be in place by this summer. I was wondering if the Minister could please give me an update on that process to streamline the distribution of medication to palliative care patients.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Member’s question. Following up on the Member’s recommendation, we have implemented that. We have a process now where as long as the doctor says in the application for medication to Green Shield or whoever is administrating our health insurance that it’s palliative care, Green Shield has been processing the documents on a 24-hour turnaround basis. By all accounts, I understand that it’s working out really well. It was in practice almost within a month of the Member asking for this to be implemented.
That’s good to hear. I guess my second question is: has that information been shared with the pharmacists? I was talking to a couple of different pharmacists today who indicated that they are unaware of any changes and have seen no improvement in the process so far. It’s great that the process is in place, but has it been shared with pharmacists?
In discussions with the insurance office in Inuvik and the officials I am advised that it has been in effect for a long time. Since the Member talked to me about it last week, I have asked them to talk to the pharmacists to make sure that it’s working well for them. But we have not heard any of the problems in that regard.
I would like to get the Minister to commit to actually providing the Members on this side of the House with a bit of a breakdown of how the process is intended to work. Also, I would like the Minister to commit to actually, like I indicated, getting this information to the pharmacists, because the pharmacists I talked to today don’t know anything about the changes in the process.
Mr. Speaker. Once again my information is that the doctors have been writing on the form that they fill out to get medication and palliative care pharmaceuticals that the doctor prescribes to patients…. They have been notified to put palliative care on the application. Green Shield knows about it, and it’s been running very smoothly. Maybe the pharmacist dispensed the drugs and was not aware of it, so I will make sure that the pharmacists are made aware of that. If a Member knows of any difficulties that any patient in palliative care is experiencing, I would like to know about that too. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Time for question period has expired. Item 8, written questions. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to opening address. Item 11, petitions. Item 12, reports of standing and special committees. Item 13, reports of committees on the review of bills. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
