New Brunswick’s health minister says improvements are being made to the province’s new virtual health-care system after criticism from some patients about delays in getting prescriptions renewed.
John Dornan says the volume of renewal requests was much higher than anticipated because the previous provider didn’t share that data with the province.
He says one fix will allow patients to request prescription renewals online directly, without going through a symptom-checker stage.
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On June 30, New Brunswick switched to a new private virtual health-care provider — Foundever — from eVisitNB, another private service that started during the pandemic.
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Some patients raised concerns online and in local media about having to book a virtual appointment through a busy telehealth line in order to request a prescription refill.
Dornan says he takes the blame for claiming the transition would be seamless, but says he still trusts Foundever to provide adequate service for New Brunswickers.
It’s not just Rx renewals that the system can’t handle. The ‘care plans’ are designed for single symptoms, cannot reflect systemic issues. The RNs follow a strict check list and want to focus on one issue. Utterly inadequate for communicable diseases and insect related illness, and NB is loaded with deer, ticks and mosquito.