Pharmacy privatization will cost 20 hospital jobs in Calgary

From the Calgary Herald:
About 20 pharmacy positions at three Calgary hospitals will be cut when the province's medical superboard privatizes outpatient pharmacies at the facilities next year.

Alberta Health Services confirmed Thursday it will ask an independent provider to take over most of its outpatient pharmacy services at Peter Lougheed Centre, Foothills and Alberta Children's Hospital-- services that are currently provided by superboard staff. The organization will introduce a similar system at the new south hospital when it opens in 2011. A new provider will be selected through a request for proposals process.

The decision is expected to reduce about 20 full-time pharmacy positions, although it is not yet clear how many layoffs will occur as some staff may find other jobs at the superboard or a position at the new stores.

But the move is meeting with criticism from the Health Sciences Association of Alberta, the union that represents pharmacists and other staff at the hospital drug stores. ...more