Ontario pharmacists look to expand role during Pharmacist Awareness Month

TORONTO — March is Pharmacist Awareness Month in Canada, and in Ontario, local pharmacists are working to make sure Canadians know pharmacists can do more than fill prescriptions and help deliver on health outcomes, and pharmacy organizations are working to make sure pharmacists can offer as much as possible to patients. 

 

“Besides dispensing medication, Ontario's pharmacists are administering flu shots, performing medication reviews, adapting and renewing prescriptions when appropriate as well as prescribing medications to support smoking cessation efforts," said Sean Simpson, chair of the Board for the Ontario Pharmacists Association. "This expanded practice has been successful in Ontario, and there is so much more pharmacists could be doing to improve patient outcomes if the government supported the expanded scope initiative.”

 

Though pharmacists in certain other provinces can provide immunizations beyond a flu shot and even prescribe treatments to common ailments, Ontario pharmacists are limited to the services that Simpson described, and he sees promise for patients in expanding what pharmacists in Ontario can do. 

 

“Ontario is one of the last provinces to empower pharmacists to treat common ailments such as diaper rash, athlete's foot and pink eye, as well to authorize pharmacists to administer vaccines for travel, HPV, pertussis and shingles, to name just a few," Simpson said. "Pharmacists are highly trained medication experts and giving them the ability to provide these services will have a significant impact on patient care, as well as on cost savings."