A new provincial law should clear up any issues regarding fentanyl patches and means there will be no need for a bylaw in Chatham-Kent.
Dr. David Colby, the medical officer of health with the Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit, says most pharmacies in the area were already asked for the used patches back before filling prescriptions for new ones.
"Our voluntary compliance was very, very high, we wanted to get it to 100% and some pharmacists were unclear what to do if they were instructed by a physician not to do this," he says. "In this case we're satisfied that the provincial law will do what we had intended to do locally."
The CK Health Board had been working on a local by law when the province passed a private members bill that will make patch exchanges mandatory.
