Walmart Canada chooses St. Catharines, Ont. as location for its first pharmacy clinic

For patients seeking care in pharmacy clinics, it can be awkward. Receiving treatment right over the pharmacy counter, consulting the pharmacist with other shoppers around and waiting for an appointment in the aisles can make it an uncomfortable experience. A number of new pharmacy clinics set to open this year are looking to change that experience. Today, Walmart Canada opened its first pharmacy clinic in St. Catharines, Ont. Additional clinics are set to open later this year in "select" provinces, though Walmart hasn’t revealed which those will be. The new in-store clinics will allow pharmacists working there to provide direct consultations and health services. Located adjacent to stores’ existing pharmacies, the clinics will operate similarly to a walk-in medical clinic—with its own waiting space and exam rooms. Patients will be able to meet with pharmacists who can treat minor ailments like urinary tract infections, cold sores, allergies, skin conditions and more, conduct point of care testing for blood pressure, HbA1C, cholesterol and more, and offer medication management and support. Patients can make appointments online or walk in. "We've been granted a unique opportunity here in Canada with the expanded scope of practice for pharmacists,” said Walmart Canada’s senior director for Pharmacy and Field Operations, Kiran Basra in a press release. “By leveraging our pharmacists' expertise, we're able to make a lasting impact on our patients by providing more personalized and effective healthcare solutions so they can continue to save money and live better." The first clinic will be located at the Walmart Supercentre on Vansickle Road in St. Catharines. Open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., some of the many services provided there will include: select minor ailment consultations, select vaccinations, medication therapy management, prescription renewals, health testing (such as blood pressure, HbA1C, cholesterol), wellness counselling (including smoking cessation and lifestyle counselling), medication reviews and chronic condition management support (for conditions like heart disease, asthma, COPD). “One in five Canadians don’t have a family doctor or nurse practitioner they see regularly. Our Walmart pharmacy clinics will help close this gap by becoming an easy access point for our pharmacists to provide non-urgent consultations and services beyond dispensing medications,” Alex Hurd, Walmart Canada’s Vice President of Health Services says in the press release. “Our goal is to help ease the strain on emergency departments and traditional walk-in medical clinics.”

Walmart Canada chooses St. Catharines, Ont. as location for its first pharmacy clinic

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