Monday, March 09, 2009

Doctor recycles prescription drugs to the homeless

From CBC News:
A prominent Canadian doctor has begun to recycle unused prescription drugs to homeless people in Ottawa because he says they could not afford them otherwise, CBC News has learned.

Dr. Jeff Turnbull, chief of staff at the Ottawa Hospital in Ottawa, acknowledges the practice is controversial but says it is one way to ensure that homeless people get the medication they desperately need.

He and Dr. Ron MacCormick, an oncologist in Sydney, N.S., want provincial governments to establish regulations that would guide doctors who want to recycle unused prescription drugs that would otherwise be thrown out.

"I think it's a common sense issue where we could come up with common sense guidelines to direct this," Turnbull said.

Turnbull, who is nominated to become president of the Canadian Medical Association next year, gives the unused drugs to patients at an inner city health centre in Ottawa. ...more

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