I am excited to hear of the provincial government’s recent decision to include prescription rights in our new scope of practice legislation. Far too often, we are forced to send our patients away when they need a prescription for antibiotics, for example, thereby duplicating services in an already overburdened health care system, and causing unnecessary and dangerous delays in treatment for our patients. Many of my patients would prefer to be able to get appropriate prescriptions from the physician that knows their case the best, rather than have to explain their entire history to a doctor at a walk-in clinic in the five minutes available for most appointments.

Naturopathic doctors receive extensive training in many “traditional” disciplines, including diagnostics and pharmacology. The BCNA and CNPBC are currently working on a continuing education package which will build on this background and ensure that we are cognizant of the latest pharmaceutical information. This package should be available in the next year, which means NDs will be able to use their prescription rights in the next one to two years. These are very exciting times to be an ND!

Should you want to learn more about our training, the historical background to this decision, or have more questions, please feel free to contact me or the BCNA at www.bcna.ca.