Improving Ontario's General Health Care

Now that the Ontario government headed by Premier Dalton McGuinty and his Liberal provincial mismanagers may be on the way out at long last, they are actually using their collective brainpower to devise practical new protocols that can be usefully employed by those engaged in the health care profession.

The latest initiative involving the implementation of a new plan that would take into account the extension of professional services of pharmacists sounds like a real winner. As government would have it, the initiative, once it is fully implemented in a year's time, will have the effect of taking off dreadfully busy doctors' hands the renewal tedium of prescriptions. 

Dreadfully busy doctors have long since figured that they can bill OHIP a better whack if they insist that their patients come in for billable appointments for prescription renewals rather than make those renewals directly to a pharmacist via the expedient of a telephone call or email renewal.  This new move will undercut that little profit margin for those doctors who insist on appointments.

And some doctors' offices, particularly those in group practise set aside several afternoons a week during flu season where their patients may flock in to the office and queue quietly for the opportunity to have a nurse give them the inoculation they require when flu vaccines become available.  That kind of set-up treats patients like the ciphers they appear to represent in modern medicine.  Little wonder people feel affronted and choose not to accept that little indignity.

But with wider authority granted by the province to pharmacists, enabling them, after an appropriate training to administer vaccines, the matter is simplified.  People may then approach the pharmacy of their choice, where  they may receive their annual inoculation. A change that will most certainly result in a greater uptake in the population. 

The name of the goal is, after all, to have as many people as possible vaccinated to achieve the "herd effect", protecting society against the inevitable circulating annual flu virus.

The changes just announced by the Premier will have pharmacists able to refill some (non-narcotic) prescriptions, prescribe medication to those attempting to halt their use of tobacco, assist people with chronic diseases; teach others the manner in which to use an asthma inhaler, or those diagnosed with diabetes how to inject insulin. 

The expectation is that all of Ontario's 3,500 pharmacies will be fully prepared to implement these changes by next year.  And at a quite reasonable cost to the system, in comparison to what is extracted by doctors billing OHIP at their usual rates.

Most people have experienced the willing helpfulness of pharmacists when they are approached to fill out scripts prescribed by their family physicians.  Pharmacists can be a fount of useful information.  They also keep tabs on what their clients' needs are. 

Their advice in their area of expertise can be certifiably invaluable and even emotionally supportive in clarifying issues of concern to a patient. In point of fact, even now, many people depend on the goodwill and personal interest through their professional auspices, of their family pharmacist.

The Ontario Medical Association is fully in agreement with this initiative taken by the provincial government.  They agree that collaboration between health care professionals can only enhance the overall system, as long as pharmacists are trained for their role-expansion.

"It is important that when health care professionals take on new roles and responsibilities, we also improve lines of communications between providers training opportunities and monitoring practices to ensure that the quality of care, patient safety and continuity of care are all enhanced", advised OMA president Dr. Doug Weir.