Ontario is conducting a study to see if using other professional medical personnel including pharmacists, nurses and non-physicians could help deal with the burden of crowded emergency rooms and doctor offices.
may soon have the power to prescribe medicine to their customers. In Alberta they already are able to prescribe some drugs, give drug refills and inject vaccinations.
Some doctors in Ontario are not keen on this idea saying that pharmacists don't have the training to diagnose patients.
"My father was a pharmacist and he had a great knowledge of drugs but he was never trained in diagnosis,'' said Brian Day, head of the Canadian Medical Association, adding prescribing pharmacists isn't the solution to the doctor shortage either.
"To say this is an answer to the doctor shortage is ludicrous. The answer to a shortage of doctors is to produce more doctors.''
Still the Ministry of Health believes that pharmacists do have the knowledge of medicine that is needed to make simple decisions when it comes to prescribing drugs. Being able to use their knowledge could possibly free up space in emergency rooms and doctor's offices for simple illnesses.
"Pharmacists go to school for just about as long as doctor does so if we can deploy them more effectively as a front-line health-care provider, that could be advantageous to patients,'' Health Minister George Smitherman said.
Executive Director Jeff Poston says that pharmacists could help reduce the need for trips to the hospital for those who have chronic illnesses. In some rural areas people have a much easier access to their local pharmacist than a doctor's office.
Customers already routinely ask their pharmacist's advice on which over the counter drugs would be best for ailments like coughs, colds and diarrhea.
What do you think? Would you trust your local pharmacist to give you the right medicine for an ailment?
Pharmacists May Soon Prescribe Medicine In Ontario
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