by Ramy Hazboun, Xpresspharm

The introduction of Bill 41 on November 15, 2011, attracted the attention of the public and the media, and not just with respect to the bill itself. Its tabling renewed the debate on the appropriateness of allowing others to perform activities reserved to doctors by the laws of Québec.
Bill 41, adopted on December 8, draws on the content of recent amendments to pharmacy laws in other Canadian provinces in order to facilitate the lives of citizens who do not have ready access to a family doctor or who consult their pharmacist due to minor health problems and symptoms.

What’s new in this law?

In the Pharmacy Act, there will be six new activities reserved for pharmacists, but with one or more conditions. These activities are:

• Renewing a doctor’s prescription, but not beyond one year
• Modifying a doctor’s prescription with respect to form, dosage, quantity or directions
• Substituting another medication from the same therapeutic subclass in the event of a complete disruption in supply of the prescribed medication in Québec
• Administering a medication (not intravenous) for demonstration purposes
• Prescribing and interpreting laboratory analyses for monitoring, but not diagnostic, purposes
• Prescribing a medication when no diagnosis is required, especially for preventive purposes

The new responsibilities in the Pharmacy Act will need to be regulated and the Order of Pharmacists will have to consult with the College of Physicians before adopting these new regulations. The six new activities will be marked off by several regulations that will specify the cases, conditions and methods of application, notably with respect to the training required, as well as the standards relating to the form and content of prescriptions made by a pharmacist.

The framework for the announced changes is contained in Bill 41, but their implementation will have to wait for these regulations. In the parliamentary Committee on Health and Social Services on November 29, pharmacists and doctors claimed to be able to prepare the regulations for submission between April and November 2012, depending on their complexity and the level of expertise needed to write them. They also reaffirmed that only doctors may diagnose.
The adoption of Bill 41 is a major victory for many Quebeckers: those who lose a day of work at the hospital emergency room or the walk-in clinic to renew a prescription when their situation is stable; those who truly need emergency assistance and whose waiting time is increased by those who have no alternative but to go to the emergency room; perhaps, eventually, those who were recently diagnosed with an ailment such as a urinary tract infection, who recognize the same symptoms and hope to again procure the same medication that healed them the first time.

It also represents increased productivity for doctors and pharmacists who will gain time that may have been previously squandered by an outdated process.