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FREDERICTON - The provincial government has taken a first step in creating an electronic prescription monitoring program, providing real-time information about a patient's monitored drug history to all health-care providers in New Brunswick including doctors, dentists and pharmacists.

The Prescription Monitoring Act passed its first legislative reading yesterday.

Health Minister Mary Schryer said one of the program's main objectives would be to identity any misuse or abuse of narcotics and controlled drugs, alerting medical professionals to the possible misuse of monitored drugs (such as when prescriptions for narcotic substances are filled at multiple locations on the same day).

"The Prescription Monitoring Program has been designed to provide information to prescribers to assist in patient care decision making and promote optimal prescribing and utilization of monitored drugs," said Schryer in the legislature yesterday.

The program, which is expected to be in place by early 2011, is estimated to cost $1.2 million in creation and $500,000 annually in maintenance. Schryer also said the system would over time allow the Department of Health to review, evaluate, analyze and report on patterns of prescription drug use throughout the province.

The province says the legislation would be subject to all other privacy legislation ensuring that personal health information was properly safeguarded.

Other provinces have implemented prescription monitoring programs to deal with prescription drug abuse in their own jurisdictions, including Nova Scotia.

Multiple coroner inquests into deaths related to prescription drug overdoses have recommended that the provincial government establish a central reporting system to identify potential abusers of narcotics and controlled drugs.