Opioids are a major public health issue in Quebec. Several strategies
have been put in place to help healthcare professionals manage the
population with substance use disorder or at risk of misuse. As the
Pharmacists play a leading role in the management of these
people, the Alert program was created by the Order of Pharmacists of Quebec in 1985. It
This is a tool that helps pharmacists to adequately monitor the
patients at risk of inappropriate use of medications, particularly by combining
the patient to a single pharmacy and a single prescriber. This document is used to establish a balance sheet
of the program as it currently stands and to draw up a portrait of similar programs
existing in other Canadian provinces and in the United States.
About the Alerte au Québec program:
- Since the early 2000s, there has been an annual growth in the number of alerts of approximately 6% per year, mainly alerts concerning the change of a designated pharmacy.
- The number of alerts for drug abuse remained stable.
- There has been a decrease in alerts for false or falsified prescriptions, possibly due to consultation of the Quebec Health Record since 2014-2015.
- The number of alerts specifically concerning opioids has remained fairly stable.
About other programs in Canada and the United States:
- Several provinces and states also operate prescription tracking programs that track the evaluation of prescriptions for controlled substances and provide a population-based portrait of psychoactive substance use.
- Very little information on the effectiveness of these programs and their effects on public health has been published.
- Evaluation of the effectiveness of various restriction programs and their actual ability to limit drug abuse is necessary.
- Some aspects are particularly worthy of exploration, such as the risk of directing patients towards unsafe sources of supply.
- These assessments would make it possible to produce performance indicators which would facilitate the identification of elements requiring updating or improvement.
