On April 14, Neighbourhood Pharmacies provided feedback to the Ontario Ministry of Health regarding their consultation on regulatory changes providing pharmacists with authority to prescribe for certain Minor Ailments. We are very supportive of this first step in increasing patient access to care and medications. We also recommended that the province consider other minor conditions where pharmacy involvement in assessment and prescribing services will further increase patient access to care (e.g., routine immunizations, travel vaccines). We’ve also recommended implementation of additional POCT services where tests exist to screen for or assess minor ailments conditions (e.g., strep throat). Although outside the scope of the consultation, we have also emphasized the need for a fair and reasonable public remuneration model to enable access to minor ailments treatment in pharmacy in Ontario as well as advocated for a COVID-19 antiviral ‘test-to-treat’ strategy.
