Lana_ Posted June 5, 2010 Report Share Posted June 5, 2010 With the health cuts, I guess this is the end of private practice for pharmacists. How will this affect the pharmacists working for SDM? (And other stores...). Is there going to be a shortage of jobs for pharmacists, and will their pay go down? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hailey_medschool Posted June 5, 2010 Report Share Posted June 5, 2010 my guess is that they will start selling some drugs without prescriptions. -finally i can get the vicodin i want or move to places where there is more of a need, rural areas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrnursing Posted June 6, 2010 Report Share Posted June 6, 2010 Until government pays proper dispensing fee and funds the pharmacists properly, we may see many small independent pharmacies closing down. Larger ones like Loblaws and Walmart can survive because they have other things to sell. The current dispensing fee that government pays the pharmacists is $7. The actual cost of dispensing fee is around $14. They are losing $7 for dispensing every medication. It was covered by the professional allowances before. The government is only willing to raise the dispensing fee by $1 ($4 for rural) from $7. Without proper funding from the government, and with elimination of the professional allowances, the pharmacists have to reduce staff in their pharmacy. This means that there is going to be reduction in services and care. The pharmacists looks at drug interactions, allergies, and double-triple checks physician's prescription when dispensing the medications. It takes time, precision, and accuracy on their part. The number of prescriptions to fill won't change, but the pharmacists who were usually working with full-staff would be working with little-no staff. Furthermore, in the end, it is the regular people who will be screwed. When OHIP was no longer available for optometry services, who was screwed? If you're currently using insurance to get drugs, you'll still be paying the same insurance fee, but you'll be paying out of your own pocket for other services. If you're not using the insurance, the generic drug cost will be a bit lower, but you may not save any money because you'll be paying for the difference in dispensing fee and other services with your own money. Seniors will be spending money from their own pocket because free delivery of drugs (that has once been covered by the professional allowance) will no longer be available. They will be paying out of their pocket for drug delivery. Also, a lot of the seniors will be paying money out of their pocket for special packaging that the pharmacists once provided for free (also covered through professional allowances). A mother and her sick child who is vomiting in the middle of the night may visit the pharmacists instead of going to the emergency room. The pharmacists will now have no choice to charge the mother money to give professional advices like what drugs to take and interactions (also once covered through professional allowances). Guess what? A lot of people have swallowed the spin lines provided by the government. "Oh yeah, the generic drug prices that only consists 25% of total Ontario drug budget will be lowered!" By the way, 75% of the money is spent on Brand Name drugs. How come they're not being lowered huh? lol. Well ofcourse... government is getting nice "kickbacks" from Brand Name drug companies for listing their drugs. One thing government "forgot" to mention is that people will now be paying out of their pocket, and we'll be paying more for everything now. We're the ones getting screwed in the end. Sure, the government says that there are more pharmacies than Tim Hortons, and many independent stores can close down (What kind of cruel government is this?), but look at it this way... You can't compare Tim Hortons with Pharmacies. Apples and oranges. We only have 12,000 pharmacists serving around 13,000,000 people in Ontario. We need the pharmacists, whereas, we don't really need Tim Hortons (Some may though lol). What a stupid comparison made by the government. More shocking thing is that we're actually not paying much higher generic drug price compared to other provinces and countries. The government "forgot" to equate the end consumer pricing. This is not the end. They're tackling the pharmacists because they're the easiest to attack. Guess what? I believe that physicians and nurses are next. In the end, we're going to get shafted and screwed by the government. If you're of legal age and can vote, do not vote for the liberal in the upcoming election. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skim Posted June 6, 2010 Report Share Posted June 6, 2010 What's going on with pharmacists? I have not heard any news but would like to learn what is going on and in what parts of the country Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrnursing Posted June 6, 2010 Report Share Posted June 6, 2010 Ontario right now, but other provinces will follow. Visit StopCuts.ca for more information. http://www.youtube.com/user/DefendPharmacy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rext Posted June 6, 2010 Report Share Posted June 6, 2010 Wow, this sucks majorly for current/future pharm students. I hear many haven't been able to find any co-op placements at all due to the new legislations. Apparentely Rexall cut all internships and Shopper's had an issue with over-acceptance :S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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