Pharmacists continue battle

Written by production

Wednesday, 03 February 2010 19:12

In spite of diligent work on the part of Taria and Curtis Gouw, the owners of the Bow Island pharmacy, the Alberta government is implementing its Alberta Pharmaceutical Strategy - Phase 2 (APS-Phase 2) plan beginning April 1. The Gouw’s have pled on behalf of rural pharmacies before local municipal groups and received their support as well as residents of the County of Forty Mile and various media outlets. County residents have also shown their support by sending letters requesting how APS-Phase 2 will affect rural pharmacies be considered more fully before the strategy goes into effect, but so far to no avail. A petition is also being circulated. Gouw maintains that the primary problem with the strategy is it removes funding from rural pharmacies which it doesn’t replace, and instead the government offers vague promises that a different funding structure will be set up, but no concrete numbers have been made available for pharmacies to look at. “They have only announced cutbacks, not funding,” Taria said. “There will be transitional funding, but that doesn’t cover the cuts - not even the basic costs of prescriptions. And that funding will decline over a three year period and then it’s gone.” Curtis said Taria has been interviewed by several media representatives about the issue. On Nov. 27 CHAT out of Medicine Hat interviewed her and aired portions of the interview on the radio as well as the television. Last Tuesday Global Lethbridge conducted an interview with aired that evening and last Thursday CHAT spoke with her again. Global was scheduled to do a follow-up a few days later. Taria pointed out the savings the government is offering to the Alberta public who purchase generic drugs have to come from somewhere. “Sure, patients are going to save a few bucks here and there, but what are they ultimately going to lose?” That loss, she said, could include not only many of the services pharmacists currently provide free of charge, but rural pharmacies themselves as well as urban pharmacies that specialize in medical equipment may wind up closing their doors. She added a television station in Calgary job-shadowed a pharmacist in that city on her last day of work, a woman Taria said is one of the first victims of the issue. However, neither Taria nor Curtis are ready to give up the fight yet. Besides continuing to collect names on the petition, they are trying to schedule a meeting with the new health minister, Gene Zwozdesky, or one of his representatives. “The battle is not over yet. Since we have a new health minister, I think we should meet with the municipalities again and ask them to send him letters of support. We need to give him some of the history of what has lead up to this announcement and the affects it will have on pharmaceutical care.” “It is a cut to our way of providing services to our community which will ultimately effect the services provided,” Curtis explained. For more information and to find out how to add your voice to those asking the government to take another look at APS-Phase 2, visit www.icareaboutmypharmacist.org.