The Canadian Pharmacists Association (CPhA) is ramping up efforts to increase the number of medical conditions pharmacists can treat, in what it says is an effort to help ease the pressures of an overburdened healthcare system. Members of the CPhA held a national summit where it called on provincial governments to "collaborate to ensure all pharmacists can work to their full education, ensuring all peoples in Canada have access to a comprehensive range of services close to home." Download the CTV News App for breaking news alerts and video on all the top stories In a statement, the CPhA says governments should make pharmacists "as a first point of primary care," with the goal to see pharmacists have a consistent list of responsibilities across the country.
As it stands, pharmacists' abilities to treat ailments and prescribe drugs vary from province to province. Alberta is the only province or territory that allows pharmacists full prescribing authority where they're able to prescribe drugs for all conditions and/or ailments without a prescription from a doctor. "Alberta are the gold standard, where they basically are autonomous prescribers, so that means they are independent and they are able to prescribe, based on their professional judgement, any medication that is available and everyone else is playing catch up," said Justin Bates with the Ontario Pharmacists Association.
Other provinces like Ontario allow for pharmacists to treat and prescribe for 19 ailments in total, in.