Ontario pharmacists still waiting for green light to offer more vaccines
Health minister says pharmacists would be able to administer tetanus, diphtheria, shingles vaccines
Last year, Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones promised pharmacists would be able to administer more vaccines for their patients, but pharmacists say they're still waiting for that change to happen.
"Our government is continuing to expand our bold and innovative plan to make it easier for people to connect to the care they need, close to home," Jones said in a news release on July 24, 2024.
Since January 2023, pharmacists in Ontario have been able to treat and prescribe for some minor ailments like cold sores, pink eye and urinary tract infections.
They've also been allowed to administer some publicly funded vaccines, such as those for COVID-19 and influenza.
In her 2024 announcement, Jones said more vaccines, such as those for tetanus, diphtheria, pneumococcal disease and shingles would be added to that list.
Jonathan Gbedemah, a registered pharmacist in Sudbury and owner of Jonathan's Kingsway Pharmacy, said he and his colleagues are still waiting for that change.
"So we haven't seen anything on the ground yet, up and running," he said.
"We don't have at this time access to these publicly funded vaccines to give them out to the public."
Gbedemah said recent changes to expand the scope of practice for pharmacists has been a positive move because there are 2.5 million Ontarians without a family doctor.
"So if pharmacies can fill the gap in care and we're able to offload some of the need in the health-care system, that's a fantastic opportunity," he said.
Gbedemah said people generally interact with their pharmacist much more often than they do with a family doctor — if they happen to have one — so allowing pharmacists to do more makes sense.
He said he suspects that the delay in expanding that scope to include more vaccines comes down to all the work that needs to happen in the background.
"Probably a big part of it is building the platform similar to what they did for the COVID vaccinations, but applied to other publicly funded vaccinations," he said.
Gbedemah said pharmacists would need some way to access patients' vaccination history so they don't mistakenly give someone an extra dose they don't need.
CBC News contacted Ontario's Ministry of Health for an update on its planned expansion for pharmacists' responsibilities, but did not receive a response by deadline.