Health committee  I would just add that actually your licensing body, your regulatory body, also has a role to monitor and look at the practice of prescribing. But it is a clinical decision to use the information that is provided by drug companies. You need to look at it and then use your clinical judgment in terms of what is applicable or not.

Health committee  It is a good question. The only thing I would add—

Health committee  I think it is a good question. We are planning to provide a document and a copy of our presentation. We will look at that, to see if there is some information we can provide additionally.

Health committee  I think the only thing I would add as well is that the interdisciplinary team is essential. If you want to try to reduce the use of drugs, you need to reduce the wait time and really make services accessible in a reasonable timeframe, and connect the right professionals around the person.

Health committee  I mentioned that Switzerland did bring a program that was very effective. I think that is one country to look at.

Health committee  If I can answer from a nurse practitioner's perspective, evidently when you are in front of a patient you look at it in a comprehensive way. You look at the total care and the total aspect of the individual so you start to try to map out some of the different interactions or reactions that the person has experienced so you start to do some clinical analysis.

Health committee  We need supervised injection sites. We need to reduce the risks and the complications that arise from poor practices such as the use of dirty needles. That is one way to reduce risks. If we do not have sites of that kind, we are making a mistake. It is a way of helping people with their addiction problems.

Health committee  Let me make a comment while my colleagues prepare their answers. We feel that it is of critical importance to provide prevention and to reduce the risks. It is the basis of all prevention. People have to be educated and provided with a safe environment so that we can identify and provide the care they need.

Health committee  Just for the record, I think the report First Do No Harm has a good section and shows the cross-responsibility at the provider level, the government level, and the local level. I think I would advise the committee to really look at some of those surveys, because they are needed.

Health committee  If I may just add to that, I think I would say as well that you can translate the guidelines into tools, but tools that are not limited just to providers. There can be tools for family members, for them to have a better understanding of some of the implications, and fact sheets for patients and fact sheets for dispensers, so that you have easy-to-access, retrievable, and concise information that can be used on a day-to-day basis.

Health committee  If I may add my observation in relation to that, there's clearly a need to create bridges to cover the transition between acute care and the community. Because patients do flow from one system to the other, we need to have a better mechanism. Electronic exchange of information is one area, the second one is e-pharmacy.

Health committee  All right. Good afternoon. My name is Rachel Bard and I am the CEO of the Canadian Nurses Association that represents more than 150,000 registered nurses. I will certainly be able to answer your questions in French. A nurse's priority, above all else, is his or her patient's well-being.

Finance committee  For us, what it means is that we want to increase access for patients in terms of services. We believe that nurse practitioners are a point of entry. We would actually then help physicians address those who need their care, while nurse practitioners would be able to address some of the care.

Finance committee  That's correct, an overall comprehensive approach.

Finance committee  Of course, increasing that envelope would be ideal, but we would at least like to keep what we have. This program has really generated added value and targeted needs related to health determinants. We know that it has been effective. The economic benefits have been very substantial.