ews & features EDITOR ETHAN REYES THE VOICE, WEDNESDAY, NOV 25, 2015 7 Drug tracker underused, report says New report critical of drug providers who don't use tracking program, PharmaNet Rexall Drugstore By TESSA VIKANDER ll clinicians prescribing drugs in B.C. should be forced to regis- ter for PharmaNet, according to new report. The report comes from Canadian Re- search Initiative of Substance Misuse, and outlines recommendations on how the province can reduce over-prescrip- tion of opioids following 90 deaths from the opiod fentany] last year. PharmaNet software provides health care practitioners with information on a patient’s past prescriptions. It is not yet widely used by doctors, even though it has been available to them since 1999, mainly owing to acces- sibility factors. John Culter, chairman of Medinet —a parent company of PharmaNet - said that doctors have been slow to adapt to the software, owing to busy schedules, and still rely on calling the pharmacist who will check PharmaNet for them. “But the pharmacy is sometimes busy, and it becomes a nuisance, so all of a sudden it gets left out,” he said. He added that doctors are supposed to verify if another has prescribed opi- oids to the patient that same day or week. General practitioner and Clinical Di- rector of UBC Sexual Medicine, Dr. Stacy Elliott, said that PharmaNet doesn’t account for patient consump- tion, which makes the verification pro- cess difficult. “TPharmaNet] is a way of checking [what was prescribed] but I don’t know whether the patient took it or not,” she said. Elliott said she probably wouldn’t pay for the software if she was in pri- vate practice, and would contact the pharmacist instead. Dr. Laird Birmingham said that Pharmanet can also pose privacy risks for patients, adding if he were to use the software, he would want a dedicat- DUSTIN GODFREY- photo The Rexall Drugstore in downtown- Vancouver. Drug stores like Rexall where patients can pick up prescriptions would know im- mediately if the customer had already filled their prescrip- tion somewhere else, thereby reducing the chance of over- dose or abuse. ed computer terminal, in a separate room. “The big issue is to have it available so that a doctor can see it in a private way ... it would probably be better to have it on a cell phone or something,” he said. Legally, PharmaNet is prohibited from being used outside a medical of- fice, so the company’s app has yet to be launched. Pharmacist Leanne Bo echoed Bir- mingham, saying that many are de- terred by the technology use. “This is all new grounds that we’re moving towards, digital presriptions, [and] everything being on a database.” SIMILAR programs 1 Prescription Review Program, Sask. 2 Narcotics Monitor- ing System, Ont. 3 Tamper Resistant Prescription Drug Pad Program, N.L. 4 Nova Scotia PMP, N.S. 5 Manitoba Prescrib- ing Practices Procram, Man. 6 To be determined, PEI. Source: http://www.ccsa.ca/ MARK STUART photo The rainbow crosswalk on Davie St., which represents the diversity of human gender and identification. Provincial prisoners in B.C. can now be housed with the gender they identify with By BRIDGETTE WATSON hen transgendered inmate Bi- Wi: Lavado arrived at the Alouette Correctional Centre for Women, she told her legal advocate that her face hurt from smiling so much because she was no longer in men’s prison. This month, the B.C. Ministry of Jus- tice made policy changes that give transgendered prisoners more rights, including placement in a correctional centre relevant to their self-identified gender. Lavado contacted Prisoners’ Legal Services upset with her placement in a male facility. That prompted executive director Jennifer Metcalfe to push for a change. “We wrote to BC Corrections on [La- vado’s] behalf and it turned out they were already in the process of revising their policy, but there were a few issues we saw with it so they graciously al- lowed us to be involved in the policy development,” explained Metcalfe. “We are very impressed with BC Corrections taking initiative.” Nelson Hildeb- randt, a _ federal correctional —pro- gram officer, says the provincial changes are posi- tive but he would like to see similar policies adopted nationally. é “The federal sys- JENNIFER METCALFE tem has not yet Executive direc- tor of Prisoners’ had movement on legislation,” said Legal Services Hildebrandt. “We are dealing with a system that is many years old and a bit of an old boy’s club, so there are some things that are going to take a few gen- erations.” Madison Compagna, founder of the Langara Gender and Sexuality Collec- tive echoed Hildebrandt’s desire for change at the national level. “Prison is probably the least safe place for transgendered people so we need to have a federal policy, it is not enough to have it only provincially,” Compagna said. Both Metcalfe and Hildebrandt are hopeful that the federal government will address the concerns of transgen- dered inmates in federal prisons. “With the new liberal government,” said Hildebrandt, “I think we will see more tolerance of diversity.” Fed policy welcomes single, gay Syrians Amendment to Canada’s Syrian settle- ment plan announced early yesterday By MURRAY B. HUNT and SEYEDMOSTAFA RAZIEI 66 olence at home will be allowed to settle in Canada, according to the government’s refugee plan. G: Syrian men who are fleeing vi- Itis a defi- nite value for Canada to select refugees screened by UN- HCR and it include sexual orientation and trans- sexuals CHRIS FRIESEN DIRECTOR OF SETTLEMENT SERVICES FOR IMMIGRANT SERVICES SOCIETY OF B.C. It was announced today by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that Canada would be admitting 10,000 Syrian refu- gees by the end of the year and 15,000 more by February. Unaccompanied single males are not being accepted for refugee status. Ac- cording to the government’s refugee plan, however, single males who iden- tify as members of the Syrian gay com- munit will be allowed into the country. Chris Friesen, director of settlement services for the Immigrant Services Society of B.C. said “It is a definite val- ue for Canada to select refugees screened by UNHCR and it include sexual orientation and transsexuals.” Same-sex relationships are criminal- ized in 77 countries around the world. Ninu Kang, director of communica- tions and development at MOSAIC, an organization which helps LGBTQ im- migrants, said that Canada has a role to play if Syrian refugees are being prosecuted at home because of their sexual orientation. “Being humanitarian is really about looking at which groups are most vul- nerable,” Kang said. “The refugee poli- cy is about looking at those individuals that are the most vulnerable.” With files from Ben Bengtson