Pharmacy Association of Saskatchewan lobbying province for expanded scope of practice

Following in the footsteps of other provinces that have experimented with pharmacist-led clinics, like Nova Scotia’s community pharmacy primary care clinics and New Brunswick’s piloted pharmacist care clinics, the Pharmacy Association of Saskatchewan (PAS) are seeking an expanded scope of practice to open similar primary care clinics. “We believe that we can make a significant contribution to primary care,” PAS’ CEO Michael Fougere says. Fougere explained that they are advocating for the province’s pharmacists to be able to provide common vaccinations, provide contraception, smoking cessation and conduct med reviews (that is, reviewing medications, relevant lab work, identifying drug interactions and more). Pharmacists in Saskatchewan are already able to treat and assess over 30 common ailments in the pharmacy. Earlier this year, the province rolled out strep throat and ear infection testing to a number of pharmacies around Saskatchewan. Fougere says this “test case” was a “big step for the province because [it's possible to] do point-of-care testing in the pharmacy with results given in 10 to 15 minutes and then the pharmacist can prescribe for that.” Much of Saskatchewan’s population resides outside or major urban centres. For the province’s rural population, a pharmacist is often the only medical professionals around, says Fougere. Expanding pharmacists’ scope of practice will make healthcare more accessible and reduce wait times in the province. Fougere points to Nova Scotia’s care clinics as an example: “The clinics around Nova Scotia have done a wonderful job and they demonstrate a reduction of people going into emergency wards because people are going to a pharmacist who can help.” While Saskatchewan isn’t piloting anything as broad as Nova Scotia’s program, PAS’ CEO hopes to use the strep throat and ear infection clinics as a test case and will soon be expanded.

Pharmacy Association of Saskatchewan lobbying province for expanded scope of practice

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