Posts Tagged ‘Healthcare in Ontario’
Remarks from Solutions in Drug Plan Management Discussions
Here is my speech entitled “A Challenge for Innovation”, the entire document is reproduced below.
Adam Radwanski in the Globe – “Drugstores poised to become true health-care hubs”
Another interesting article by Adam Radwanski in today’s Globe and Mail.
But now Dalton McGuinty’s government is positioned to leap to the front of the pack in transforming the profession.
Not only has it empowered pharmacists to perform certain services traditionally restricted to doctors – such as giving vaccinations and prescribing some medications – but it has the chance to provide a groundbreaking incentive to take on those tasks, turning pharmacies into health-care hubs.
Before Christmas, the Ontario legislature unanimously passed Bill 179, which permits pharmacists (along with nurses and nurse practitioners) to perform services normally limited to doctors – services they have already begun to provide in other provinces, including British Columbia, Quebec, Alberta and New Brunswick.
Pharmacists have been poised to assume a leadership role in healthcare in Ontario for decades. The lure of rebates has been the single biggest reason why community pharmacists (either independent or part of a chain) have never really fully engaged in a scope of practice that would sincerely garner public trust in their role as part of the health team.
The McGuinty government has done more for the profession in the past 6 years through landmark legislation like the passage of Bill 102, which gives pharmacists the opportunity to assume a rung in the ladder of primary care through Meds Check. It also passed Bill 171 which increased the scope of practice for Pharmacist techs which has opened the door for pharmacists to assume an even greater role as Mr. Radwanski points out through the recent passage of Bill 179.
There is much more work to do. Long Term Care and Specialty Pharmacists play a vital role in the health care of patients and their issues need to be addressed. Hospital pharmacists have long been a part of primary care teams among health professionals. Moving pharmacists out of the basement of hospitals and onto floors, so to speak, has been a boon for patient care.
The opportunity exists through all the drug reform initiatives that are occurring across the country for pharmacists to rise to the occasion and fill a role that patients want for them to be a competent part of their health care team.
Adam Radwanski on Pharmacy in the Globe.
Here is a link to an interesting article written by Adam Radwanski in Sunday’s Globe and Mail.
U.S. Expert’s perspective on bulk export of Canadian Prescription Drugs
In response to the growing concerns over the cross-border prescription drug trade, an event was hosted at the National Press Club where Dr. Marv Shepherd, an expert on the importation of drugs from the University of Texas, spoke to a Canadian audience about the negative impact of drug exports to the US.
We have been voicing concerns for the past two years about the detrimental impact of the spread of cross-border trade in prescription drugs, and more specifically drug re-importation into the United States via Internet pharmacies.
“Our message to the government of Canada is to move quickly to ban all export of prescription drugs, said Marc Kealey. “This will in effect eliminate the potential risk to the Canadian supply of prescription drugs, and as importantly, eliminate the potential risk on patient safety due to the unregulated internet pharmacy trade.”
Prescription drugs are a highly political issue in the U.S. because of their high prices and cases of Americans going across the border to Canada for treatment or to buy drugs have been growing.
One of the biggest problems associated with importation is people never know exactly where the drugs are coming from. There is no guarantee that imported drugs are safe. Just because there is a Canadian flag on the website, doesn’t mean that the source of the drug is from Canada. Therein lies the problem for Americans – who may not be certain that the drugs they receive via Internet Pharmacy may be real.
A country with 33 million citizens should not be supplying the prescription needs of a country with 280 million,” said Kealey. “Raiding Canada’s medicine cabinet will not solve health care problems in the U.S.”
This has been the ongoing message that Marc Kealey has delivered to media and to stakeholders across the country and in several states in the United States, including Texas, Maine, Florida, Rhode Island, Michigan, Illinois, Nevada and Vermont.
