A prescription for fax machines

Re: “Legault angered by Quebec’s COVID response” (Aaron Derfel, July 17) François Legault is said to be angry that, among other things, health authorities have had to rely on fax machines to collect and transmit data. The premier is right to be upset. But our health system needs to update its technology in other ways, too.

I recently had a late-day phone consultation with a doctor through a walk-in clinic, including sending an email with a photo of a rash to be examined. The process worked efficiently, but I was flummoxed when asked to give the fax number of the pharmacy where I wanted to pick up my resulting prescription. Who knows that? She might as well have asked me how to tap it out in Morse code. She then found it on a list.

I went to the pharmacy the next morning, and there was no record of having received the prescription. Told the circumstances, the pharmacist was not surprised, saying doctors working from home usually are unable to send the faxes themselves and must, instead, send emails to the clinic, which then prints them out and faxes them, usually the next day if the consultation is done late in the day.

Asked why the prescription couldn’t just be emailed to the pharmacy by the doctor, the pharmacist told me that the professional regulations require them to receive the “true and single copy” of the prescription by paper. It’s beyond me how a fax can be considered a “true and single copy” any more than, say, an emailed image of the prescription that is then printed. This is something Legault should look at fixing so all fax machines in the health system can be sent to museums.

Don Sancton, Beaconsfield