Is Shoppers Drug Mart poaching pharmacists from South Africa?

From the Globe and Mail:
Michael and Berdine Fazakas liked what they heard: that in Canada, they could own a profitable business - really profitable. That there are fewer murders in most Canadian cities each year than there are in a week in Johannesburg, where they live now. Canada has good, free schools for their future kids and vast expanses of nature - "just lots of opportunity," Mr. Fazakas said.

That's what they took away from a meeting held here last week by Shoppers Drug Mart Corp. Canada's largest drugstore chain has a team in South Africa seeking pharmacists to hire and sponsor as immigrants to Canada. The company provides legal assistance and covers the costs associated with immigration for the pharmacists it hires here. There's another Shoppers' information session in Durban tonight and in Cape Town on Thursday.

This is the only developing country where Shoppers recruits, and it's one with a dire shortage of pharmacists: In KwaZulu-Natal province, for example, one in three adults has HIV but 75 per cent of jobs for public pharmacists are vacant.

So meetings like last week's dinner-drinks-and-information session (from which Shoppers' staff barred a Globe and Mail reporter) are controversial. ...more

Journal accuses Shoppers Drug Mart of poaching South African pharmacists

I find the concept of recruiting health professionals from other geographic areas a fascinating ethical question. Who is to say that a foreign pharmacist doesn't deserve the opportunity to build a new life in another country? Also, what about luring health professionals from rural areas of Canada to larger urban centres? What if Shoppers recruits the only pharmacist in a small town in northern Manitoba and leaves that town without pharmacy services?

I'm not sure why a physicians group has decided to take Shoppers Drug Mart to task on this. I'd like to hear the Canadian Medical Association's views on urban health regions recruiting in smaller Canadian towns that are already short of physicians.

The last line in the article is very interesting...

"If Shoppers Drug Mart fails to act before World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, CMAJ also believes governments, hospitals and all Canadians should show solidarity for South Africa, and take their business elsewhere."

Does this mean we will see a physician led boycott of Shoppers Drug Mart? Will physicians counsel their patients to not get their prescriptions there? Will they refuse to send new or refill prescription orders to Shoppers? As far as I'm aware, physicians are ethically obliged to not suggest one pharmacy over another to patients.

From the Canadian Press:
Human rights activist and former UN ambassador Stephen Lewis joined one of Canada's pre-eminent medical journals Tuesday in denouncing an iconic drugstore chain for aggressively recruiting South African pharmacists and potentially fuelling a public health disaster.

In an article to be published in its January edition, the Canadian Medical Association Journal takes Shoppers Drug Mart, Canada's largest drugstore chain, to task, accusing it of going after the very pharmacists South Africa desperately needs to dispense drugs to its own population.

For the last three years, Shoppers has dispatched recruiters to the southern African country with aim of luring pharmacists with the promise of a guaranteed $100,000 salary, the journal says.

"This behaviour is not just gauche; it is unethical," the article states. ...more

Extend dental coverage, doctors urge

From the National Post:
Something must be done to extend health insurance for dental care and prescription drugs to the millions of Canadians who lack such coverage now - even if taxpayers end up footing the bill, the president of Canada's largest doctors group said yesterday.

Brian Day is best known for wanting to give the private sector a bigger role in health care, but after a speech in Toronto, the new head of the Canadian Medical Association advocated essentially expanding the public system. He lamented the fact that some Canadians have health insurance through their workplace that pays for dental care, medication and other health needs not covered by government plans - while many have no such coverage.

"There is something wrong with 30% not getting their drugs paid for, getting a bill when an ambulance takes them to a hospital, not having their crutches paid for," Dr. Day told reporters. "I think they should get it, somehow. And if they can't afford to pay the premiums, the government should pay the premiums for them." ...more

Public officials quick to seek private remedies: CMA president

From the Vancouver Sun:
Canada's top doctor singled out New Democrat leader Jack Layton Sunday for "hypocrisy" for undergoing hernia treatment at a private Toronto medical clinic.
But Dr. Brian Day, president-elect of the Canadian Medical Association, was quick to note Layton is in good company.

Former Prime Ministers Paul Martin, Jean Chretien and Joe Clark have also been treated at private medical clinics, Day told the annual meeting of the Canadian Science Writers' Association.

And he says union leader Buzz Hargrove, president of the Canadian Autoworkers, proved a master at "cue jumping" when he got in for an MRI within 24 hours of injuring his leg.

"Even I couldn't do that," said Day, the outspoken and media savvy orthopedic surgeon who takes over in August as president of the CMA, which represents 62,000 physicians across Canada. ...more