Alberta government promotes 'pharmacy clinics' to take strain off family doctors, ERs
CBC
The Alberta government is touting an expansion of private pharmacy clinics across the province as a significant relief valve for family doctors and emergency rooms under strain.
"There is an urgent need to find fixes and deliver accessible care fast and efficiently," Premier Danielle Smith said at a news conference at a northeast Edmonton pharmacy on Thursday morning. "One answer is to make better use of all health professionals' time and talent, and now we have more ways to do that."
Shoppers' Drug Mart president Jeff Leger said Thursday the chain will renovate its stores across the province and add nine new shops to create 103 pharmacy care clinics by the end of 2024.
Leger said the $77-million investment in the clinics will help backstop the provincial care system and give Albertans more access to primary health care.
However, the organization that regulates Alberta pharmacists says the clinics are nothing new.
"Shoppers Drug Mart has chosen to label portions of some of their pharmacies as 'pharmacy care clinics' to create awareness about these services. The services offered in 'pharmacy care clinics' are already available in most pharmacies," Alberta College of Pharmacy spokesperson Barry Strader said in an email Thursday.
Alberta pharmacists have the broadest scope of practice of the professionals across the country. They've been able to prescribe medication and administer injections since 2007.
Strader said about 60 per cent of pharmacists are authorized to prescribe the higher-risk medications kept behind pharmacy counters.
He said the newly branded clinics may create more awareness about the services pharmacists offer, and increase demand, but may not lead to more pharmacists working in Alberta.
Pharmacists can also assess patients for minor illnesses and ailments and prescribe treatments when appropriate.
According to the Shoppers Drug Mart website, patients can visit their stores across Alberta for assessment of allergic rhinitis, bladder infections, pinkeye, to get birth control pills and morning-after pills, diagnose ringworm, heartburn, and more. Alberta Health reimburses pharmacists for the cost.
The first Alberta Shoppers store to brand itself as a pharmacy clinic was in Lethbridge in 2022, and the company introduced the clinics last year to a handful of Ontario stores.
Other Alberta pharmacies already included clinic features before Shoppers tested the model.
Shoppers' parent company, Loblaws, did not immediately answer a question on Thursday about how many of its Alberta pharmacies are currently branded as clinics.
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