Prescription powers increasing for Ontario pharmacists

Ontario is expanding pharmacists’ prescription powers to ease the burden on doctors and walk-in clinics.

Pharmacist Ali Hammoud, who works at Rexall Drugstore in Windsor, is relieved about the decision.

“I think it’s a good change because it takes pressure off of the healthcare system, and pharmacists are the most accessible healthcare workers,” said Hammoud. “It allows patients to come directly to us for help.”

He added that certain medications are approved for each minor element.

“For example, for a urinary infection, we can prescribe things like Macrobid or Sulfatrim,” said Hammoud. “So it kind of depends on each element, and there’s a specific list of medications that we’re allowed to prescribe.”

Hammoud said this change could prevent patients from going to the doctor’s office for things that are easily treatable.

“It was a little bit difficult in the beginning to incorporate the extra work into our normal workflow,” said Hammoud. “But we have a couple of pharmacists here working at the same time, so we try to do all of our extra work during those overlap hours.”

Jody Moland, a pharmacist who works at Guardian DMC Pharmacy in Windsor, also supports this change.

She said it’s something the pharmacists can do at their level to take away the burden from the healthcare system, and it’s something that’s within their power to do that they feel comfortable with.

“I think that it’s a good thing,” said Moland. “For some pharmacies, they may not be able to do it because they’re a lot busier than the specific pharmacy, so to make appointments and things like that and follow the paperwork, it might be a bit of a burden, but for this pharmacy specifically, it is a good thing.”

For their pharmacy, it won’t make much of a difference because they do have extra time to spend with patients. For smaller pharmacies, this is practical, so for them, it would actually be a positive change.

Natalie Oraha is a Pharmacist Technician at The Drive Pharmacy in Windsor.

“I do believe that expanding the scope of practice for pharmacists is going to take a load off of the clinic doctors,” said Oraha. “I think pharmacists are knowledgeable enough to help with a basic need, but coming from myself working in the pharmacy field, I feel like it added pressure on a pharmacist because they do have a big workload. I think it will work in a non-busy pharmacy, but for a pharmacy working busy days of 300 plus prescriptions, it will take away from a pharmacist’s daily duties.”

She added that Ontario pharmacists are authorized to prescribe medications for minor ailments. She said it is both good and bad. The good reason being that it helps doctors at the clinic be able to focus more on serious infections for patients and clears a busy load off the doctors’ end. On the other hand, a pharmacist already has a daily workload and weekly target goals and this adds work to that. For patients, it cuts down on waiting to see a doctor for minor issues that can be solved.

“With extra hours, I believe they would need to hire a pharmacist technician and utilize their scope of practice to check refills and renewal prescriptions, that way it won’t affect the pharmacists,” said Oraha. “If they don’t get extra help I believe added work stress may occur and it could mentally take a toll if it becomes overbearing.”