Pharmacists want to prescribe drugs

The association representing pharmacists in Alberta is about to start lobbying for the right to prescribe drugs as a way of improving the quality and efficiency of health care.

The Pharmacists Association of Alberta has just completed a survey of the 2,500 pharmacists in the province. Almost 96 per cent of those asked said they felt they should have the right to prescribe drugs.

Barry Cavanaugh, CEO of the association, says pharmacists have long complained that they spend at least four years studying pharmacology in university but are underused.

Cavanaugh says many pharmacists are frustrated "because they're trained to do far more than they're permitted to do at present." Pharmacists should be able to work with doctors, he says, to alter the dosages of some medications and even write prescriptions for certain illnesses.

"There's been huge amount of evidence in recent years demonstrating very conclusively that pharmacists who are free to deal with medication and to monitor conditions can make a considerable difference in the health of people who are being monitored," he says.

Cavanaugh says pharmacists would never replace doctors in making diagnoses. But he says pharmacists are medication experts and right now they are often reduced to simply being drug dispensers.

Meanwhile, doctors in the province are urging caution in this regard.

"In order to support this we would need to be convinced that the training they get is adequate and appropriate," says Dr. Bob Burns, speaking on behalf of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. "If that challenge is met we'd be satisfied they met the template and go ahead."

Burns adds that doctors are leery about turning over their prescriptive authority. "I think one of the big things that we would like to see is a proposal that would see this as a collaborative function as opposed to a stand-alone function," he says.

The Pharmacists Association of Alberta plans to take this proposal to the Alberta government and lobby for a change in the Health Professions Act.