After their starring role during the pandemic, will pharmacists continue to shine post-COVID?

Victor Lee shook his head from behind the counter at Victor Pharmacy, the downtown Toronto drugstore he owns and operates with his wife and children. He doesn’t do interviews, he said, because he dislikes being in the spotlight. But in a way, he already is. Lee, like most pharmacists in the country and in other parts of the world, has been on the centre stage of healthcare during much of the COVID-19 pandemic, looking after patients who were too scared to go to a hospital or who simply preferred an in-person alternative to the virtual consultations their family physician had switched to. “There was a call for somebody to take care of Canadians in their communities and pharmacists rose to the occasion,” said James Morrison, director of pharmacy excellence at Markham, Ont.-based Whole Health Pharmacy Partners, which operates about 100 independent pharmacies in six provinces.“I think, absolutely, not just the public but also governments and payers–everybody–will be looking at pharmacy a little differently after the pandemic.” That may be a gross understatement. A recently published review of pharmacy practice around the world during COVID-19 noted that the role of pharmacists not only changed or expanded, it also became more visible to patients, communities and governments, and to other healthcare providers. The study authors also noted that, while in a number of previous emergency events pharmacists were no longer included in disaster health management once the crisis had passed, the profound global impact of COVID-19 has led to a "universal recognition of pharmacists as essential members of the healthcare workforce." So will this widespread recognition lead to sustained acknowledgement and advancement of the pharmacist profession in Canada? Morrison thinks so. He pointed to the early years of pharmacist-administered flu vaccinations in the country as an example of how expanded pharmacist roles can influence public perception of the profession. “That was a big change in how people viewed pharmacy,” he said. “Now with COVID-19 it’s a hundredfold from that. The opportunities that will come out of this will be tremendous.” Among these potential opportunities, an important one for Ontario pharmacists is the ability to perform routine immunizations, said Morrison. “Because of COVID, patients have missed out for the last two years on their routine immunizations because doctors’ offices have closed, public health isn’t doing it and school-based injections aren’t happening. So this will be a huge opportunity to unlock our potential to help everybody catch up with their routine immunizations.” This will require more than legislating routine immunizations into Ontario pharmacists’ scope of practice, said Morrison. “Part of the progress should be the expansion into universal health records so we can see what vaccines are needed for each patient,” he said. “When we were offered COVaxON, I saw that as a gateway and as an indication that pharmacists are a trusted provider who can enter information into a patient’s health record. But currently, we have very limited access to patient information.” Lisa Dolovich, professor and dean at the University of Toronto’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, said being able to retrieve and access information within a common digital health record platform will help pharmacists become more integrated into the country’s healthcare teams. Dolovich said she sees pharmacists increasingly taking on the role of health and wellness navigator for their patients. Some are already doing this and, as the end of COVID-19 eases the pressure on pharmacists, she expects more will embrace this role. “Depending on what their patients need, the pharmacist may be able to connect them with exercise or smoking programs, provide a phone number for a primary care physician or a specialist, or help with hospital discharge instructions,” said Dolovich. “It may be that the pharmacist is the first person in the community that someone sees when they’re discharged from hospital, and the pharmacist helps by reviewing the complete discharge package and even directing the patient to a community resource. “The pharmacist may also follow up with that patient, or with a resource organization on a patient’s behalf.” For pharmacists to become fully participating members of healthcare teams in Canada, they need to have a seat at every healthcare planning table, said Dolovich. Whether the plan is for improving mental health or addressing the country’s opioid crisis, governments and other stakeholders must remember that pharmacists are part of the solution. "I think the pandemic has shown that pharmacists are more than capable, so let’s not forget that,” she said. Morrison agrees. After working on the frontlines of COVID-19, pharmacists are not going to retreat to the sidelines. "We've been tooting our own horn for years," he said. "And now we're at a point where we will finally be taken seriously."

After their starring role during the pandemic, will pharmacists continue to shine post-COVID?

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