P.E.I. pharmacists to be able to prescribe

I missed posting some articles while I took a break. I will attempt to catch up over the weekend. This one might have been one of the most interesting in the world of Canadian pharmacy.

From CBC News:
Prince Edward Island pharmacists will soon be given the authority to write prescriptions for their customers.

Changes to provincial legislation allowing pharmacists to renew some prescriptions are expected to be passed next month in the legislature.

Currently, when a prescription runs out and a person doesn't have a refill from the doctor, P.E.I. pharmacists can't do much except provide a few pills to tide the person over. The new legislation will change that.

"This is not prescribing something new; we are not diagnosing anything," Neala Auld, registrar of the P.E.I. Pharmacy Board, told CBC News Thursday.

Allowing pharmacists to renew some prescriptions will be a great convenience for patients, said Auld, particularly those without a family doctor.

"It puts patients in a very difficult position having to get a new prescription and wait maybe two or three hours in outpatients for something that easily could be addressed at the pharmacy level," she said. ...more