3 years after talks broke down, P.E.I. pharmacists look to resume negotiations with government

The association representing P.E.I. pharmacists says it could soon be back in negotiations with government, almost three years after talks broke down with the previous administration over how much pharmacies should be able to charge in fees, and what services they should provide at public expense.

The last agreement between the association and the province was reached in 2012 — when Robert Ghiz was premier — and expired in 2016.

More recently, a ministerial briefing note dated May 2019 stated that the dispensing fee of $12.36 paid to Island pharmacies for clients of government drug programs is "one of the highest reimbursed fees in Canada."

That briefing note was provided to Health Minister James Aylward the same month the current PC government came to power in 2019. It was obtained by CBC News through a freedom of information request.

"Similar to the goal of reaching parity with our Atlantic counterparts in relation to our drug formulary, we also want to ensure that the costs to deliver drug programs are in line with the Canadian average," the document states.

Erin MacKenzie, executive director of the P.E.I. Pharmacists Association, said her group disagrees with the characterization of fees being among the highest in the country, saying the assessment "is out of context."

It was a difference of position over fees that caused previous contract negotiations, begun in Oct. 2016, to break down a year later.

Pharmacists 'walked away'

MacKenzie said her group "walked away from the negotiation table," and that at the time the two sides were "quite far off as far as what we were looking for in a new agreement.... at the time government was looking to cut costs on health care in general."

MacKenzie said the previous government proposed "decreases in payments [which] just were not going to be acceptable in order to be viable in this current landscape."

I think that there is a lot of discussion that can happen now that will advance the number of services that pharmacists will be able to provide to Islanders.— Erin MacKenzie

As to whether fees might continue to be an impasse if and when negotiations resume, she said "that was a previous government and discussions specific to a new contract with this new government have not begun. We will be focusing our energies on the current landscape."

P.E.I.'s pharmacy services agreement sets out how much Island pharmacies can charge for services ranging from dispensing drugs to providing immunizations, and whether those services are paid for by the province.

MacKenzie said much has changed in the health-care landscape since the last contract was signed.

"I think that there is a lot of discussion that can happen now that will advance the number of services that pharmacists will be able to provide to Islanders in the future," MacKenzie said.

Doing so, she said, could "pick up some of the slack where we have an environment of shortages of other professionals such as physicians and nurses."

New services added, despite impasse

While there's been no agreement on a new master contract, government and pharmacists have reached separate agreements since 2012 to make specific additions to expand pharmacists' scope of practice.

In 2014 pharmacists became authorized to administer vaccines like the flu shot, but at a cost to the patient. Those fees are now covered by the province.

In July 2019 the province added six travel vaccines to the list pharmacists are allowed to administer, along with three blood tests. 

MacKenzie said her association has recently been in talks with the province's deputy health minister over what a new contract could look like, something which she said could lead both sides back to the negotiating table.

In December Aylward told CBC he supported further expanding scope of practice for pharmacists and hoped to bring amendments to regulations forward during the spring 2020 sitting of the legislature, but that there was groundwork that needed to be done first.

While in opposition, the PCs called on the previous Liberal government to expand the role pharmacists play in P.E.I.'s health care system.

More from CBC P.E.I.