After promising fixes in 2014 and 2016, the Nova Scotia government now says much needed changes to the prescription drug monitoring program will come in 2017.
The prescription monitoring program is meant to track the prescriptions for dangerous drugs like oxycodone and hydromorphone, in order to prevent potential misuse or abuse. However, a May 2012 auditor general report said the program has “considerable weaknesses.”
Following questions from Global News, the health department said it missed its latest deadline to have all 17 recommended changes in place by June 2016. The new deadline is March 2017, according to spokesperson Tony Kiritsis.
READ MORE: Advocates work to raise awareness about prescription drug abuse
Health Minister Leo Glavine said a new drug information system will be in place by the end of September. Once the system is in place, the government said the data collected from it will determine how to implement recommendations from the auditor general.
“It’s a tracking system that is way more robust than what we had in the past,” Glavine said.
Two successive auditor generals have called for changes to the prescription monitoring program.
In his 2012 report, Jacques Lapointe said the shortfalls “allow potential abuse or misuse to continue undetected.” In response, the then NDP government said the changes would be in place by 2014. A change in government in 2013 left the file with the Liberals.
The government’s failure to meet the 2014 deadline prompting a scathing rebuke from auditor general Michael Pickup in April. He said the failure to implement three changes means Nova Scotians are still exposed to the “potential abuse and misuse of prescriptions.”
The outstanding recommendations include redesigning the monitoring system to use more technology and rely less on manual reviewing; tracking decisions and documenting why the decision was made to act or not to act on a file; and implementing a quality assurance process to verify the work that is done.
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