The Federation of Medical Women in Canada urges pharmacist prescribing for vaccines in Ontario—especially for HPV
The Federation of Medical Women in Canada (FMWC) has released a national study that illustrates the importance of pharmacists in vaccination programs. Alongside the study, the FMWC are calling for an urgent expansion of pharmacists’ scope of practice to include prescribing authority for all vaccines, particularly the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine.
According to the study, a whopping 86% of those surveyed believe that the HPV vaccine should be offered to adults for free and 76% of Ontarians agree that pharmacists should have the power to prescribe all vaccines. These findings are a “a clear signal that the public is ready for change,” says Dr. Vivien Brown, a family physician and chair of HPV Prevention Week and chair of the FMWC HPV Task Force in a press release. “This is a solvable issue that disproportionately affects underserved populations. Expanding pharmacists’ authority would streamline access, reduce missed opportunities for protection, and strengthen public health outcomes across the province.”
Justin Bates, the CEO of the Ontario Pharmacists Association (OPA), says that the study reflects what pharmacists and the OPA already know: that the public already trust pharmacists with healthcare services.
For the OPA, Bates says that the association wants to work alongside the government to build pharmacists’ scope of practice to align with the competency training and comfort levels of pharmacists. “Ontario is playing a bit of catch up with the fact that we still have gaps in what pharmacists can do,” he says, adding that the majority of Ontarians get their flu vaccines at a pharmacy every year. “And then we saw during COVID what happened when we ramped up and mobilized very quickly, pharmacies were one of the preferred destinations. It makes perfect sense to move towards all publicly funded vaccines delivered through pharmacy.”
Bates says that the results of the survey also illustrate the fact that Ontarians want pharmacists to be “a hub to be able to get vaccinated for everything, because right now it’s very fragmented.” A big part of this is that Ontarians can get some vaccines at the pharmacy, but not all. This causes unnecessary patient confusion and hesitancy, which means a reduced likelihood of vaccination.
Getting all publicly funded vaccines in pharmacies is also a major goal for the OPA, and Bates says it would reduce complexity surrounding getting immunized and reduce barriers. HPV is a big one, he says. As is the measles vaccine, especially with the recent outbreaks. “Anything that is currently Health Canada-approved that is going through public funding should be enabled,” he says.
This survey comes as the Ontario government is in consultations with pharmacists surrounding their scope of practice and potentially expanding it—which Bates says is aligned with the OPA’s advocacy. On top of the ability to prescribe and provide more vaccines, the OPA wants to add more minor ailments that pharmacists can treat, moving some diagnostic testing to pharmacies, autonomous prescribing on some drugs and more chronic disease management.
“We have the competency to do [all of this], that's where we’re moving towards,” he says. “Though it’s incremental, that’s ultimately what we think will benefit patients most.”
