Article content

A trio of Toronto health-care experts is touting a unique solution for patients who can’t afford their high-priced medication: doctors should simply admit them to hospital, where drugs have to be dispensed for free.

The patient wouldn’t actually occupy a bed or need to stay for more than a few minutes, but could get their medicine from the hospital pharmacy at no charge – as the law requires, they say in a commentary published Friday.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Doctors should 'admit' patients to hospital if they can't afford drugs, experts urge Back to video

The authors concede that exploiting such a “loophole” might be viewed as dishonest, make patients fearful of government reprisal or spawn discipline concerns for doctors.

Hospitals would also face increased costs.

But the authors argue that doctors have a duty to help however they can the millions of Canadians who can’t afford necessary medications — and often don’t take them as a result.

“There’s a huge gap in public policy and we are trying to fill it,” said Dr. Nav Persaud, a family physician at Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital and lead author of the commentary. “We see the issue every day in the clinic, where people come in and they can’t afford to take medication. So their blood pressure remains high or their diabetes remains untreated.”