Editorial: After all these years, a sad truth

I recently passed a significant milestone. Yep, the big five-oh. It just dawned on me that, since I’ve been writing for pharmacy publications for 15 years now, and attending 3-4 pharmacy conferences per year, I probably hit the 50-conference mark this year.I still remember my very first. It was an Ontario Pharmacists’ Association conference in Richmond Hill, Ont. The issue du jour was Ontario’s pending legislation to outlaw the sale of tobacco in pharmacies. (Now, that was an exciting AGM!) But what really stands out from that first pharmacy conference was the surprise of learning, for the first time, what pharmacists can really do to help patients.Until that day, my only experiences with pharmacists involved handing a prescription to a nice person who, minutes later, gave me a little white bag with a receipt stapled to it.But after hearing passionate pharmacists (Barbara Ogle, in particular, sticks in my mind) describe the life-changing, one-on-one work they were doing every day with patients, all I could think was:“How come I’ve never seen a pharmacist like that?”The OPA’s 2009 conference in Toronto last month—number 50?—was equally inspiring.Ross Tsuyuki outlined the scientific proof that pharmacists’ intervention and care lead to better health outcomes. Wonderful! When you step up and do your stuff, it really makes a difference. I actually got excited about peri-menopause and menopause after Irene Hogan explained how to manage bothersome symptoms. From Ken Burns’ presentation, writer Sonya Felix learned how pharmacists can improve her asthma management and day-to-day quality of life. And after hearing Carolyn Whiskin’s plea for more pharmacist awareness of the many effective options for pain management, my colleague Rosalind Stefanac (editor of Pharmacy Practice) wanted to make an appointment with Carolyn (who practices about an hour away) for her husband’s back pain. But at the end of the day, the three of us had the same response:“Wow, these pharmacists are amazing! But I’ve never seen a pharmacist like that.”Are we just looking in the wrong places? Maybe. Or could it be that, 15 years later, there still aren’t really that many pharmacists practising the way they can and should be?Sadly, that’s probably closer to the truth.Ask Ross Tsuyuki. He’ll tell anyone who listens how frustrating it is that only 1% of pharmacists will fully participate in his ground-breaking pharmacy care research programs. These programs are not only proven to help patients get better, they could also be the cornerstone for future health policies that would use and pay pharmacists for primary healthcare. Rewarding work for the good of the profession—and only 1% step up.In our 2009 Trends & Insights survey, 43% of pharmacists said that they perform additional services beyond basic patient counselling on prescriptions. That’s great news. And yet…In Ontario, since 2007 the province has paid pharmacists to perform patient medication reviews. It’s what pharmacy has been asking for, for years—after all, you are the drug experts. And yet… according to claims submitted to the province, last year, the average Ontario pharmacy performed just one MedsCheck every five days... What’s going on here?Please, share your thoughts. Let’s find out what needs to happen to change this.vicki.wood@rci.rogers.com

Editorial: After all these years, a sad truth

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