Pharmacists to prescribe drugs April 1

We're only a matter of days away from the beginning of the pharmacist prescribing era in Alberta. How is it really going to affect practice? We'll see. The only sure thing right now is that pharmacists won't be able to initiate therapy yet as those guidelines are not ready.

I hope I will have a better idea of how this works later this week. By then I will have completed the Alberta College of Pharmacists course on how to adapt and extend a prescription.

Keep your eyes on this space as I'm planning to make some predictions about pharmacist prescribing. My attempt to foresee the future will be posted here prior to the April 1 date.

From the Edmonton Journal:
Starting April 1st, some people heading into their pharmacies will be able to get their prescriptions refilled without heading to their doctors first.

The Alberta Pharmacists’ Association is launching a public campaign to let people know of changes to the Pharmacists Act that will allow pharmacists to prescribe drugs and refill prescriptions, with some limitations, as of next month. ...more