This is a difficult time to be a pharmacist in the province of Ontario. The government has passed regulations that will make it very difficult for any of us to stay in business. Throughout the process they have relentlessly attacked the integrity of our profession and attempted to paint pharmacists in a very negative light.
Despite all of our efforts, and there were many, to have the government return to the negotiating table or have the regulations softened, the Minister of Health pressed on with her agenda. There are those who feel that we should have done more to stop the regulations from happening. Still others cling to the false hope that we can stop them from being implemented. I have seen and heard some of the most ridiculous suggestions to date coming from the fringe of the profession that believe riots, hunger strikes and all manner of idiotic behaviour are the answer to our problems. Of course, I respect these guys for their passion and commitment to their profession, but I have to believe their suggestions would do more harm than good in our current situation.
The government and many people in the province know that we are unhappy with the regulations in their current form. We have protested , collected petitions from over 500,000 Ontario voters, spent money educating the public through media and advertising, and have attempted to have an intelligent conversation with the powers that be in the Ministry of Health. It seems as though there has been little impact from any of our activities.
I think anyone who believed that the government was going to fully retreat from their position and that it would be business as usual was looking through rose-tinted glasses. It would have been nice to finish the war before the regulations dropped, but this phase was as much about setting the stage for the next 1-2 years as it was about achieving immediate change.
There has been much written about the plight of pharmacists and the potential impact that the cuts proposed by the government would have on our profession and our business model. We have warned that some pharmacies would go out of business, that dispensing fees would rise considerably, and that services that had previously been offered free of charge would no longer happen or would be subject to fees. We have set the stage to begin charging a fair fee directly to the patients for the services that we said would be affected by these changes. There is no one living in the province or working for the government who should be surprised when this happens.
Yes, we have entered a new phase in our battle for respect and fair funding from the government. This is the time to prove that we were not bluffing, we were not presenting distorted facts or misinformation, and the new reality in pharmacy practice in Ontario, as legislated by the Ontario government, is that patients pay a lot more than they have been used to. The intelligent operators will be able to survive and be able to clearly demonstrate that the government promises of lower drug costs for Ontarians were as sincere as every other promise this premier and government have made during their tenure.
The people of Ontario will have their chance to pass judgement on this government in 2011. Barring a major shift in public opinion, the majority of these Liberals will be out of a job and we can begin to negotiate a fair deal with the new regime at Queens Park.
Our mission now is to take the high road and work with the hand that we have been dealt. We need to find a way to make our business work to support our professional practice within the constraints of government policy. Every time we ask a patient to open their wallet before providing service, we need to make sure they know exactly who is responsible.
It is regrettable that the Loblaws of the world do not seem to share in our common goals for the profession, but we cannot let them dictate the terms of our practice. While we will probably lose a few scripts to them, my experience has been that most patients are looking for more from their pharmacy than simply the lowest price. We need to continue to serve the majority of our patients who appreciate and expect the level of care that they have been accustomed to receiving from us.
In the end, our victory will be achieved through the legions of pharmacy patients who appreciate the care they receive from us and support our efforts to be recognized by the government. We will not gain their support by acting like radical fringe groups or through taking destructive and unprofessional actions. We may gain their support by continuing to provide them with the care they expect and informing them of the reasons that it now costs them a lot more to receive it.
I urge every pharmacist to remain focused on our long term goal of gaining respect from the government and other payers through an adequate professional fee and professional services funding model. I also urge all pharmacists to fight, and fight hard, but to do it with class and professionalism.
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