Frontline workers and community members in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside say some pharmacies are paying its patients kickbacks for prescriptions despite the practice being banned more than a decade ago.
CBC News has spoken to more than a dozen people in the community, including pharmacists, nurses, doctors and patients with first-hand experience, who claim some pharmacies are paying customers a share of the money they claim from the B.C.’s PharmaCare program.
They say payments can range between $100 and $200 per month depending on the number of daily prescriptions per person.
“The fact that these sort of behaviours are so common, and particularly within this population, without
