N.B. government says prescription problems being addressed with new virtual care provider

New Brunswick is acknowledging issues with its new virtual health-care platform.

New Brunswick’s health minister says the province wasn’t aware of just how many people used virtual health care to renew prescriptions, addressing complaints about the new Virtual Care NB provider.

Early user feedback about Virtual Care NB, which went live on June 30, has reported longer wait times and delays in getting prescriptions renewed when compared to the former provider eVisitNB.

Health Minister Dr. John Dornan said most of the concerns about Virtual Care NB had been focused on prescription renewals, but he didn’t have statistics for how many complaints had been received by the province.

“But I know it was more than we anticipated,” said Dornan. “We didn’t have data from the prior provider as to what volume was prescription renewals.”

Dornan said “you could almost expect” the demand for prescription renewals through a virtual care provider, noting 200,000 people in New Brunswick are without a family doctor.

Interim Progressive Conservative Leader Glen Savoie, who’s been critical of the switch from eVisitNB since it was announced in February, said the early concerns raised about Virtual Care NB were “plain and simple bad management.”

“This thing has been a boondoggle, it’s a mess,” said Savoie. “Are they really telling New Brunswickers that they didn’t know that people were going to find themselves in this situation?”

The provincial government signed a two-year, $26-million virtual health care contract with Luxemburg-based Foundever (which also operates New Brunswick’s Tele-Care 811 service) to manage Virtual Care NB.

For months, Dornan said there would be a seamless transition between the two providers.

“I take the blame for claiming it would be seamless,” said Dornan. “It’s clearly not without concerns that need to change on the spot.”

Going forward, Dornan said an online option to streamline prescription renewals would be added so patients wouldn’t have to go through 811.

“Additionally, a prescription renewal option is being added to the Tele-Care 811 phone menu to help direct callers more efficiently,” said Dornan. “This feature will help improve the patient experience, while protecting the 811 registered nurses’ queue for priority calls.”

Dornan also warned people against waiting until their prescription was gone, or almost gone, before attempting to get a renewal.

“Don’t wait until 12:00 on Sunday night to realize your prescription is not available tomorrow morning,” said Dornan. “And make arrangements for prescription renewals before medications run out, whenever possible.”

On Tuesday, the New Brunswick Pharmacists’ Association said there had been an uptick over the last two weeks of patients showing up at drug stores looking for help with prescription renewals. Association CEO Heidi Liston also said the province had no meaningful discussions with pharmacists about Virtual Care NB prior to it coming online.

Dornan agreed with Liston’s assessment.

“Had we known there were going to be so many prescription renewals, we would’ve involved them more carefully, and endeavour to do that moving forward,” he said.

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