Expansion of clinical activities | Pharmacist owners want to be paid more

Quebec pharmacist-owners are ready to do more clinical activities to relieve congestion in the public health network, but they want to be better paid. This is what the president of their association, Benoit Morin, points out, who asks Quebec to begin negotiating their fees as quickly as possible.

Quebec adopted Bill 67 last week, which aims to expand the practice of health and social services professionals. Once the regulations are in effect, pharmacists would be able to refill and prescribe a wider range of medications for previously diagnosed stable chronic illnesses (e.g., hypertension and diabetes) or current ones without a prior prescription (e.g., a urinary infection).

“Even though the bill was adopted last week, we did not agree on the terms of the fees,” said the president of the Quebec Association of Pharmacists Owners (AQPP), which is holding its annual conference Thursday and Friday in Quebec.

Pharmacist owners are “very much in favor” of expanding their clinical activities, he assures. “But we must have the means to do it,” he adds.

For three years, its members have “suffered inflation” and faced a significant labor shortage, he explains. The remuneration of pharmacy employees has increased. This is without taking into account the “much higher salaries” requested by the agencies for replacement pharmacists.

“If it is not profitable to carry out activities [cliniques]he won’t worry,” says Benoit Morin.

The AQPP also asks Quebec to intervene in the distribution of specialty medications. She denounces the fact that patients are directed, through support programs, to a designated pharmacy that is not theirs to obtain such treatment. “The law prohibits dirigisme,” underlines Benoit Morin. Despite everything, a “handful of pharmacies” controls “the majority” of this market, according to the AQPP. “It deprives us of income,” he said.

Reaction from Quebec

Asked to react, the office of the President of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, recalls that the current agreement, concluded with the pharmacist owners, ends on March 31, 2025. Bill 67 has just been adopted, adds- we say, work continues “in collaboration with the Order of Pharmacists of Quebec as well as other parties concerned, in order to regulate, through regulations, the new powers granted to pharmacists”.

“Thus, all discussions will take place at the appropriate time, including those on fees,” we say in a written statement.