Sooner you will see machines across the province, which will dispense prescription drugs around the clock. Yes, Health Minister Deb Matthews said on Friday in a conference that “Ontario is allowing mass installation of the ATM- like drug dispensing machines. This has been tested every which way. There is no question that this meets the very, very highest standards of patient safety.”

The personality has also marked that these machines will allow patients with an easy access to pharmacy services especially the people in remote or rural communities, who don’t have medical centres for an easier access to prescription drugs. These green and white drug-dispensing machines will work like ATMs and will serve with a television screen and telephone for easy operation.

Patient’s Prescriptions will be fed into the slot and will be linked via video to a real pharmacist, who will fully control the medication dispensing.

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre has had two dispensing machines on site since 2008 as part of a pilot project. The initial skepticism of Dr. John Murnaghan, an orthopedic surgeon at Sunnybrook about the machines faded after the machines were installed. They have definitely turned out to be a very reliable and a safer way for patients to conveniently access their drugs before they leave the hospital, said Dr. John.

It is important for all the pharmacies, who wish to operate a remote kiosk to be accredited by the Ontario College of Pharmacists.