in June<\/a>, Federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel said she was withholding $50 million in funding pending the review.<\/p>\nAsked about the audit and if Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec has concerns, a spokesperson for the agency told The Gazette this week that \u201cwe will leave it to the parties involved to comment on these steps.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor our part, our priority remains ensuring the continuity of services and the continued rollout of Prescription Qu\u00e9bec,\u201d Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec spokesperson Marianne Paquette said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe existing agreement allows for the continued provision of electronic prescribing services in existing settings, while further modernizing the health and social services sector for the benefit of the public and health care professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Costs not publicly disclosed as service expands<\/p>\n
Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec confirmed the province\u2019s new agreement with Canada Health Infoway is for four years. The province received funding from the organization to support the rollout of Prescription Qu\u00e9bec, it said, while Quebec\u2019s Health and Social Services Ministry foots the bill for operational costs.<\/p>\n
Asked what the sums are, Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec declined to disclose that information. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe details of the agreement with our partners are contractual commitments and are not made public,\u201d Paquette said.<\/p>\n
In other provinces, some pharmacists reportedly had to pay 20 cents per electronic prescription under PrescribeIt \u2014 an issue that contributed to low adoption numbers, The Globe and Mail reported. Asked if Quebec pharmacists were billed, Paquette confirmed the province covers the costs of the platform.<\/p>\n
Asked for details on those fees, Paquette said they fall under the operational management costs that are not publicly disclosed.<\/p>\n
Quebec\u2019s Health Ministry said the pilot project is currently used in eight clinics (for 138 doctors) and 14 pharmacies in the Eastern Townships region.<\/p>\n
The plan is to gradually roll out the service across Quebec. Before the project was briefly suspended in the province and the latest agreement was struck, the ministry said it was supposed to expand to 1,900 pharmacies by 2027-2028.<\/p>\n
\t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n
Pharmacists, doctors laud deal<\/p>\n
Quebec\u2019s deal with Infoway to keep the service going, and eventually expand its reach, is welcome news to health-care professionals.<\/p>\n
The Association qu\u00e9b\u00e9coise des pharmaciens propri\u00e9taires, which represents pharmacist-owners in the province, said it was pleased to see the project will continue under the leadership of Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec.<\/p>\n
\u201cElectronic prescribing allows pharmacists to dedicate more time to patient care by reducing low-value administrative tasks, such as manual data entry. We commend the efforts of the provincial and federal governments to ensure the sustainability of this crucial project for pharmacies and patients in Quebec,\u201d the AQPP said in a statement Thursday to The Gazette.<\/p>\n
Quebec\u2019s professional order of physicians said in a statement Thursday it \u201csupported the efforts with Health Canada to ensure the project\u2019s continuation.\u201d The Coll\u00e8ge des m\u00e9decins du Qu\u00e9bec said it also \u201cactively participated in the development of the pilot project.\u201d<\/p>\n
It described Prescription Qu\u00e9bec as a tool that \u201cpromotes patient safety and the secure transmission of information between physicians and pharmacists, which is essential for continuity of care.\u201d<\/p>\n
The province\u2019s order of pharmacists said it, along with other health and pharmacy stakeholders, had \u201cdemonstrated leadership\u201d in recent months to highlight the importance of keeping the service. The electronic tool not only facilitates communication between prescribers and pharmacists, the Ordre des pharmaciens du Qu\u00e9bec said, it also reduces \u201creliance on paper and fax machines.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a network where digital tools are often slow to meet the needs on the ground, it was essential to preserve a functional electronic solution,\u201d the order said in a statement published July 22.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe now hope that the next phase of deployment will proceed effectively, for the benefit of both patients and healthcare teams.\u201d<\/p>\n
klaframboise@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Ottawa recently pulled the plug on the service, Quebec is moving forward with a digital program modernizing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":838322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392,218268],"class_list":["post-838321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-quebec-health-care"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}