I'll give you an example.
Yesterday I had dental surgery, so last night I was in severe pain. I had a prescription in my pocket and went to the pharmacy. I have A-line and B-line coverage on my Veterans Affairs card, which means I'm covered for everything, and my prescription was declined. That was just getting a prescription.
Not long ago they got rid of the Veterans Affairs treatment authorization centres all across Canada. This was the overruling body for Blue Cross. Now there are no treatment authorization centres. Years ago they got rid of the people who were in Moncton in the Blue Cross office, so now Blue Cross is on their own, and by the way, they only work Atlantic banking hours, so if you go after hours.... I'm in the west, so the pharmacist couldn't even call them, because they're closed.
Just on prescriptions, when we're talking about service delivery, these are the implications of cutting and cutting. Just on that portion, we need to change the way we do things.
You've heard over and over from the testimony that there are so many programs and nobody knows them all. A case manager told me this morning that Blue Cross authorized four pills the next day, but my pharmacist didn't receive this information. My case manager didn't even know this was policy, and she's been there 32 years. There are so many programs and policies for veterans that it's confusing.
The best way is meet the veterans and find their needs. If they have a treatment plan, authorize the medications for their treatment plan. This is simple. Let's change the way we've done things for 100 years and instead let's meet the needs of the veteran in transitioning, treatment, rehabilitation, and lifelong support.