Neighbourhood Pharmacy Association of Canada presents to the World Pharmacy Council

The future is Canada. That’s the message the Neighbourhood Pharmacy Association of Canada heard at the World Pharmacy Council’s PHARMINTERCOM event—though they don’t entirely agree. Sandra Hanna, CEO of the association, and Shelita Dattani, its senior vice-president of pharmacy affairs and strategic engagement, were invited to present on Canada’s pharmacy sector at the event. “The key message was that we’re not doing so bad, and in fact, we are in many ways leading the world in terms of our scope and in the public and government’s trust in their services that we can receive at our neighbourhood pharmacies,” said Hanna. Read: Minor ailments counselling tools: #2 Frequent heartburn They presented four snapshots in time to the group: where Canada was in 2005; when Alberta became the first jurisdiction to offer pharmacist prescribing in 2007; the pre-pandemic situation; and finally, today. Canadian pharmacy has challenges, like a federated environment and remuneration that needs to catch up, but in terms of scope, we’re unmatched, agreed Dattani. “We are the world-class, not one; we are the world-class in terms of our advanced scope across each jurisdiction… in terms of scope, no question we’re first in class,” she said. Having pharmacy technicians be able to do vaccinations and other services is also more progressive than in many other countries. They also reported hearing about how other countries were doing with their pharmacy industry. “Globally, we’ve seen consistently that the public and governments are really recognizing the increased role that pharmacies are, and could, and should continue to play in primary care, public health and all areas,” said Hanna, adding that it was interesting to see how other countries faced similar challenges and have similar experiences over the past few years. Read: Who’s happier, pharmacists in New Zealand or Canada? A new study has the answer All countries agreed that medication dispensing is still a “core function” of the pharmacy business, and because of that, drug prices going down is a concern across the globe. They also discussed that community pharmacy is becoming “the vaccination destination.” They also discussed how funding can be a challenge, said Dattani. She and Hanna were interested to learn how this was addressed in other countries, some of which pay their pharmacists a premium for being available on the weekends and after hours. Inflation is also a common issue, including in Canada, where pharmacists are funded at half the inflation rate, said Dattani. Some pharmacy associations globally are talking about building in inflation costs when discussing remuneration with governments. Other issues that came up were workforce challenges, drug shortages, and unattached patients, many of which were concerns echoed by European countries and the U.S. When Hanna asked what the future of pharmacy looked like in the next decade, “a lot of people around the table said, ‘It looks like Canada,’” she said. “And I said, absolutely not, that’s not okay, because then, where do we go? I think we need to think bigger, and we need to think about where we go… there are certainly other leaders in other areas that we need to take from.” Read: Neighbourhood Pharmacy Association of Canada presents annual awards

Neighbourhood Pharmacy Association of Canada presents to the World Pharmacy Council

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