About PharmaNet

PharmaNet is owned and administered by the Ministry of Health.

When you present your prescription at a B.C. community pharmacy, the pharmacist enters the details into PharmaNet, and PharmaNet:

• Checks if you are eligible for PharmaCare coverage
• Finds out how much of the prescription cost PharmaCare covers (if any). If you are registered for the Fair PharmaCare plan, PharmaNet determines how much will go towards your deductible and family maximum
• If you have third-party insurance coverage for medications that allows for direct billing, PharmaNet sends details to your insurance to find out what they cover (if anything)

PharmaNet will compare the prescription you brought with your past dispenses. This allows PharmaNet to:

• Protect you from possible drug interactions and confirm correct medication dosages
• Prevent accidental duplication of prescriptions, and prescription fraud

PharmaNet is used by people working in a variety of healthcare settings in B.C. This includes community pharmacies, private community health practices, and health authority facilities such as hospitals and outpatient clinics.

Practitioner access to PharmaNet is permitted only for the purpose of providing health services to a person as part of a professional health practice. Direct access to the PharmaNet system is not available for academic or other secondary purposes, such as research, monitoring or quality improvement. 

PharmaNet users are given access only to the information they need to provide care to individual patients.

Health care practitioners must be authorized by the Ministry of Health to access PharmaNet. 

Before a practitioner can use PharmaNet, they must:

• Be granted access as an authorized user
• Sign an agreement setting conditions of use, and confidentiality and security requirements, and
• Log in securely using unique user credentials

B.C. community pharmacists

Pharmacists can access your information only as needed to provide their professional services. They can view your:

• Demographic information
• History of medications dispensed in community pharmacies, up to the past 14 months
• Claims history (such as coverage by PharmaCare), only for dispenses at their pharmacy

If a pharmacist accesses your medication history without dispensing a prescription, the pharmacist must keep a record of the reason for the access.

Private community health practitioners

Health practitioners such as physicians, nurses, dentists, podiatrists, naturopathic physicians, midwives and optometrists can request access to PharmaNet to deliver care in community health practices. This includes private practices, walk-in clinics and urgent care centres. 

Other health care providers, such as medical office assistants, may apply to access PharmaNet to support the delivery of care by one of these named health professionals.

They can view your:

• Demographic information
• History of medications dispensed in community pharmacies, up to the past 14 months
• Adverse medication reactions
• Allergies and medical conditions entered in PharmaNet by pharmacies

They can update your medication dispensing history with details of medications you are provided in a clinic.

Emergency departments and other health authority facilities

Practitioners and staff working on their behalf in emergency departments can view medication histories up to the past 14 months, and update them with information about adverse drug reactions, allergies, clinical conditions and/or drugs provided by the emergency department.

Access to PharmaNet is available to authorized practitioners and pharmacists working in health authority facilities. They have access to your medication dispensing history up to the past 14 months.

Providers of medical devices and supplies

Some non-pharmaceutical suppliers (such as prosthetic and orthotic suppliers, ostomy suppliers, mastectomy suppliers, insulin pump vendors and medical supply stores) can submit claims to PharmaCare.

These providers can view:

• Demographic information 
• Claims history only for the claims that they submitted

Device providers do not have access to medication dispensing history.

Your PharmaNet profile includes:

• Demographic information such as your Personal Health Number, name, gender, address and date of birth 
• A medication history that includes:
  • All drugs dispensed at community pharmacies
  • Non-prescription medications dispensed at a pharmacy, or those that you request to be recorded by a pharmacist
  • Prosthetic and orthotic devices and medical supplies that are eligible for PharmaCare coverage
  • Any adverse drug reactions and clinical conditions you tell the pharmacist about
  • Drug information and drug interaction evaluations (how your medication interacts with any of your other medications)
• Limited coverage information

Unless dispensed from a community pharmacy or updated at a clinical location, PharmaNet does not record prescription drugs that you receive:

• While in a hospital or other health authority facility (though emergency departments may update your record with drugs they provided, your allergies, or adverse drug reactions)
• Through the BC Cancer Agency (i.e., oncology medications such as chemotherapy drugs)
• Through the BC Transplant Society (i.e., transplant-related drugs)
• Through the BC Renal Agency (i.e., drugs for kidney dialysis) 
• From your health care practitioner that were provided at a clinic (though prescribers may update your record about drugs they provide) 

The quickest way: online at Health Gateway

• Download (and print, if needed) a record of your PharmaNet patient record at Health Gateway (www.healthgateway.gov.bc.ca)  

This will usually be sufficient for a third party (e.g., a lawyer).

The patient record goes back as far as September 1, 1995.

Through a pharmacy

If you are 12 years of age or older, you can request a copy of your PharmaNet patient record at a pharmacy.

1. The pharmacist will ask for ID to verify your identity. This must be a valid, government-issued photo ID. PharmaNet patient records may not be requested on behalf of another adult at a pharmacy.
2. After confirming your mailing address in PharmaNet is correct, the pharmacist will submit a PharmaNet patient record request to the Ministry of Health through their software.
3. The Ministry will print and mail the PharmaNet patient record directly to you.

The PharmaNet patient record will show your PharmaNet history from the previous 14 months. 

From the Ministry of Health

In some circumstances, you may need to request your patient record from the Ministry of Health.

1. Fill out HLTH 5551 - Consent for Release of PharmaNet Patient Record (PDF, 998KB). Do not fill out Patient Representative section unless it applies. For Recipient, enter a pharmacy of your choice. Include the date range of records you would like, as well as the reason for the request (e.g., for your own information, for litigation, for vaccine records).
2. The Ministry will print and mail your record to the pharmacy you identify on the form. It may take up to a month for it to arrive at the pharmacy.
3. The pharmacy will call you to pick up the record. They will confirm your identity before giving it to you, so make sure you bring valid, government-issued photo ID.

For a third-party recipient (e.g., for a litigation)

You may authorize the Ministry of Health to release your PharmaNet patient record to a specified recipient for a specific purpose, such as litigation.

A person aged 12 or older is assumed to be capable of making decisions about access to their own health records, including PharmaNet. Information must not be disclosed without consent, including to parents or guardians. Anyone requesting a patient record for a person under the age of 12, or on behalf of another adult, needs to provide confirmation of legal authority.

Sign the HLTH 5551 - Consent for Release of PharmaNet Patient Record (PDF, 998KB). Do not fill out Patient Representative section unless it applies. 

Fax or mail the completed form to the PharmaNet Profiles Services Team.

Note: Third parties will often accept a copy downloaded from Health Gateway, which is your quickest option.

The PharmaNet Profiles Services Team is available at:

Email: PharmaNetProfiles@gov.bc.ca
Phone toll-free: 1-855-952-1432
Fax: 250-953-0432
Mail: PO Box 9652 STN PROV GOVT Victoria, BC, V8W9P4

What is in the PharmaNet patient record

When you request a copy of your PharmaNet patient record, it will include:

• Name, address, phone number, Personal Health number and Gender as currently on record with the Ministry of Health
• Current and chronic medical conditions and the person who reported the information (patient, pharmacist, or prescriber)
• Adverse drug reaction information – allergies and medication side effects and the person who reported the information
• All prescriptions dispensed at PharmaNet-connected pharmacies in the past 14 months. Includes prescription number, date dispensed, drug identification number, brand name, strength and dosage form of the drug, quantity dispensed and prescriber
• Medication record access – each access made to the clinical information, adverse drug reaction information, or the medication history by health professionals in private community health practices, community pharmacies, device provider locations, and health authority clinical setting

What is not in a PharmaNet patient record

When you request a copy of your PharmaNet patient record, it does not include details about the costs of any dispenses. Any information related to PharmaCare, such as coverage or deductible, will not appear on the requested copy of your patient record. You can request details about medication costs from the dispensing pharmacy. For questions about medication coverage or your deductible, contact PharmaCare.

PharmaNet complies with the B.C. Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Pharmaceutical Services Act. It is subject to strict privacy and security measures designed to prevent unauthorized access and protect the information of B.C. residents.

For more information on privacy and authorized users, read Who uses PharmaNet and what they can see.

Protective word

You can limit access to your information by attaching a protective word (password) to your PharmaNet patient record. With the protective word in place, authorized health care practitioners can access your medication history only if you share the protective word with them.

However, if you become unconscious or unable to provide your protective word in an emergency, authorized practitioners may have it removed if they determine access to your PharmaNet patient record is necessary for safe and effective treatment.

If your protective word is removed in an emergency, you will be notified in writing. You can then ask your pharmacist or Health Insurance BC (HIBC) to attach a new protective word to your record.

• More information on how to apply, remove or change a protective word

No. All prescription medications dispensed by community pharmacies in B.C. must be recorded in the PharmaNet system. By recording every prescription dispensed in the province, PharmaNet protects British Columbians from adverse reactions to medications and serve to reduce prescription fraud. The system also ensures that you only have to pay at the pharmacy for costs not covered by PharmaCare or other insurance coverage you have.