Pharmacy reform.
Tanya Sklierenko, a pharmacist at Best Drug Mart on Bloor Street West, visits with Parkdale-High Park MPP and Small Business Critic Cheri DiNovo, who stopped in at local independent pharmacies Friday to discuss the Ontario government’s impending drug system reform.
Staff photo/LISA RAINFORD
Bloor West Village and High Park area independent pharmacists say they are worried the province's impending drug system reform will not only negatively affect their patients' health, but hurt their small business as well.
The Liberal government announced it will eliminate 'professional allowances' in an effort to make Ontario's drug system more accountable, earlier this month. These allowances, paid by generic companies, to pharmacy owners for drugs purchased through the Ontario Drug Benefit Program would be immediately eliminated while all other professional allowances would be phased out and completely done away with by 2014.
Meanwhile, dispensing fees that the Ontario government pays would increase by at least $1 for every Ontario Drug Benefit prescription filled.
"It's going to kill someone like me," said Bloor West Pharmacy's Madeleine Hebesh, a pharmacist for the past 20 years and a pharmacy owner for the past three. "My customers need me. I work hard six days a week open to close. I don't have any room to adjust. I'm a new owner. This will completely kill me."
Hebesh's customers rallied around her Friday afternoon during a visit from Parkdale-High Park MPP and Small Business Critic Cheri DiNovo, who stopped in at independent pharmacies along the retail strip to show her support and get feedback.
Customer Dan London credits Hebesh for taking a personal interest in her customers' health. She comes knocking at his door to remind him to take his medication, he said.
"You've taken care of us, now it's our turn to take care of you," he told her. "We are not a number here. You have a name, you have a face here. She is all heart and we're standing up for her 100 per cent. We want her and people like her in our community."
She is not just a pharmacist, she's family, he added.
"They want it to appear like they're doing something about rising health care costs," charged DiNovo of her Liberal colleagues at Queen's Park. "We have no say about this other than to bring in your petitions."
That's exactly what local pharmacist Brandon Tenebaum did Friday afternoon at DiNovo's constituency office. He collected more than 100 postcards filled out by community members opposing the cuts, which DiNovo will deliver to the premier's office.
"My pharmacy offers free delivery. We absorb this cost - there are seniors and disabled people who rely on this. Under this plan, the pharmacy won't be able to absorb this cost. We won't be able to offer this service," said Tenebaum.
DiNovo said big chain pharmacies will be able to better cope with Ontario's drug price reforms while independent pharmacies won't be able to afford it.
"They're holding on by their fingertips," she said during her meeting with Tenebaum. "Consumers will be hurt by this. The money has to come from somewhere if they're going to stay alive. The government is simply not negotiating."
However, generic drug manufacturers reported paying pharmacy owners more than $750 million in professional allowances in 2009, according to the McGuinty government, with pharmacy owners themselves revealing that 70 per cent were used for rebates instead of patient care. The provincial Liberals say its April 7 announcement comes on the heels of changes made in 2006 to lower generic drug prices to 50 per cent of the price of the original brand name drug while helping to fund access to 150 new prescription drug products.
"Pharmacists don't just dispense medicine, they dispense advice and I think this is lost on the government," said Tenebaum.
Pharmacists provide health advice to the community without an appointment or fee to the public or taxpayer. The planned provincial government funding cuts may lead to staff lay-offs, pharmacy closures, reduced operating hours, fewer health clinics longer wait times for prescriptions and more emergency room visits for people without adequate access to a doctor or pharmacist for timely health advice, said Tenebaum.
That's what Slava Zlydennyy, a pharmacist at West End Pharmacy, said.
"We have many seniors in this pharmacy, lots of nursing home patients and lots of Ukrainian patients. We help them by phone, people come in and see us," he said. "Many services are in jeopardy, like longer hours, educational events, blood pressure clinics. Those will have to be cut or charged for."
The drug reform will "disproportionately affect small pharmacies. Everyone's going to be channeled into big pharma," said DiNovo.