By Michelle Pucci
www.thesuburban.com
Sainte Rose MNA Jean Habel is calling for more super nurses to help on the front lines of Quebec healthcare.
The plan to hire 2,000 super nurses over ten years is still being developed and Habel’s mention comes at a time of major healthcare reform by the government.
Habel is also working on a law that will give more tasks to pharmacists, and sits on the committee for health and social services, which oversees part of Bill 28.
“It’s really our intention as a government to give greater access to frontline services,” said the Liberal MNA.
Pharmacists will be given seven new tasks, including extending prescriptions, adjusting doses, or prescribing similar drugs in cases of missing stock or problems.
One recommendation made by pharmacists during talks with the government was to use generic drugs over brand name drugs, which would make more funds available because generic drugs are less expensive.
“Pharmacists seemed favourable to the new tasks, because I think they want more responsibilities in the practice,” said Habel.
Some pharmacists say the bill will require them to take on new responsibilities they can’t charge to Quebec health insurance, while setting aside other tasks for which they actually get paid.
“There will be discussions about how we can coordinate these new tasks with [pharmacists],” Habel said, adding that the ministry is very aware of their demands.
Bill 28 is a carry-over from PQ government’s Bill 41. The bill is still being consulted and should be open for study in two to three weeks.
Meanwhile with super nurses, the government is still developing a pilot project. Internships in long-term care centres are likely going to be created and details like when and where they will occur are still in the analysis phase.
“Our intention as a government is to increase the number of super nurses on the floor,” said Habel.
(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i[‘GoogleAnalyticsObject’]=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
})(window,document,’script’,’//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js’,’ga’);
ga(‘create’, ‘UA-45892555-1’, ‘auto’);
ga(‘send’, ‘pageview’);
