Feds looking to allow nurses to prescribe Suboxone

New prescription drug abuse funding should enable nurses in remote communities to prescribe and administer Suboxone and other drugs aimed at weaning addicts off of prescription drugs, says Conservative MP Greg Rickford.
Rickford, MP for Kenora, told Wawatay News that federal funding of $1.5 million will be used in part to change the regulatory framework that limits what drugs nurses can prescribe in communities.
“We know that in some communities there is a critical mass of people affected by this prescription drug abuse,” Rickford said. “The focus is on healthy communities, ones not held back by what can be a crippling impact of addictions.”
The one-year funding announcement extends prescription drug abuse (PDA) funding from 2011, which the federal government geared at community-based treatment programs.
Rickford said that besides changing the regulations around what drugs nurses can prescribe, the funding will go towards “a continuum of care” so that nurses in communities, doctors that visit communities and specialists in urban areas are on the same page when it comes to PDA treatment.
He added that the government is working on setting up monitoring and follow up resources for people undergoing treatment.
“With any capacities to prescribe any kind of medication that would be appropriate for
treatment of prescription drug abuse, it has to involve some kinds of monitoring and follow up,” Rickford said. “We want to make sure that those resources are there in the communities.”
Earlier in 2012, the Registered Nurses of Ontario (RNAO) called for the federal government to loosen its restrictions on nurses in communities prescribing Suboxone for PDA.
The RNAO cited a number of problems with the provision of Suboxone programs in communities, including that Health Canada prevents nurses from administering the drug to new clients. RNAO also noted that the Health Canada Non-Insured Health Benefits program required a “cumbersome” case-by-case review of every situation where Suboxone is being prescribed.
“Despite being relatively safer than methadone, cost-effective, and its value as being least intrusive to community members, access to Suboxone is being curtailed,” RNAO wrote.
Rickford said the government is in part responding to the amount of attention and effort geared at raising awareness on PDA.
Over the past few years a number of initiatives have raised public awareness of the plight facing northern First Nations due to PDA. Since the spring of 2012 there have been two high-profile walks from northern First Nations to Sioux Lookout, two Sandy Lake women cycling across Canada and a number of golf tournaments that have been held to raise awareness of the issue.