Pharmacists could lessen pressure on health-care system, says association

As the health care crisis deepens in the province, the Ontario Pharmacists Association is advocating for change it says could lessen the load for an already overburdened system.

The organization has long been calling for an expansion of the scope of practice for pharmacists.

Early next year, Ontario pharmacists will have the authority to prescribe medication for minor ailments. It’s a move the Ontario Pharmacists Association is applauding, although they would like to see more growth.

“Fully utilizing our medication management expertise would create a lot of capacity and take a lot of burden off of the other providers within the system,” said Jen Belcher, vice president of strategic initiatives with the Association.

It comes at a time when a number of Ontario hospitals are grappling with worsening wait times.

An Ontario Health report titled Access to Care was obtained and published recently by the Ontario Liberals. It showed many patients waited longer to be seen at hospitals in September versus both the previous month and year.

“A lot of the conditions that we’ll be able to manage in pharmacy can really be well managed in that lower acuity setting, and will be able to keep people out of emergency departments, walk-in clinics and so forth,” Belcher said.

Wasem Alsabbagh is an associate professor with the School of Pharmacy at the University of Waterloo. He co-authored a report that found that over a third of avoidable emergency department visits could have been managed by a pharmacist.

Alsabbagh says the minor ailments pharmacists will soon be able to help manage in Ontario are not as great compared to what other provinces allow. However, he says it will provide patients with a much-needed, additional option for care.

“This care will be faster, more accessible if you go to your local pharmacy, and it will give pharmacists the ability to alleviate some of the pressure from the system,” he told Global News.

“If we can care for some patients at the local pharmacy adequately, then physicians and nurses will have a chance to care for other conditions that need more acute care.”