victorian Pharmacy - Royal Pharmaceutical Society

f e at u r e P h a r m a c y i n va n c o u v e r
Pharmacy the Canadian way
Community Practice in Vancouver, British Columbia, Susan Youssef
explores life for pharmacists on Canada’s West Coast
BritiSH Columbia may conjure up
images of moose, maple syrup, ski
slopes and grizzly bears in your
mind but it’s not all like that. Leaving aside
this Canadian quintessential, I was fortunate
to spend some time exploring pharmacy in
Vancouver on a recent visit. I wanted to share
my observations of community pharmacy
practice in this part of the world, as well as
my visit to the University of British Columbia
School of Pharmacy.
The undergraduate degree
The University of British Columbia (UBC)
is a large campus university near downtown
Vancouver, which houses the School of
Pharmacy for the province. Prior to entry to
the four-year BSc (Pharm) degree, students
must complete a science degree. UBC
prides itself on being a “case-based” degree
whereby students utilise the problem-based
style of learning.
Fourth-year students complete a 12-week
internship (eight weeks in community
pharmacy and four in either hospital or
industry placement) under the supervision of
an accredited preceptor.
Following successful completion of this
internship and after obtaining the BSc degree,
students are permitted to take the BC local
college of pharmacy board exam. On passing
this exam they are then entitled to a licence
to practice as a pharmacist. Once registered,
a pharmacist can earn between CA$ 38-65
per hour.
Community Pharmacy Practice
Pharmacists who choose to practice in the
community sector frequently work for large
chains, such as Safeway, Zellers, London
Drugs or Shoppers Drug Mart. The pharmacy
team consists of pharmacists, technicians
and fourth year pharmacy students in stores
with accredited preceptors. However, unlike
the UK’s healthcare system, the Canadian
system is based on insurance plans through
Pharmacare.
Pharmacare
The pharmacist accepts a prescription from
the patient at the front desk and also asks for
the patient’s Pharmacare card. Each patient
has an insurance plan with Pharmacare which
determines the level of care they are entitled
to. To be eligible for a Pharmacare plan a BC
resident must have a Medical Services Plan
and have submitted a completed income tax
return based on their personal income from
two years previously.
Each patient pays the full cost of
prescriptions until they reach a level known
as their deductible. Once the deductible
is reached Pharmacare starts to provide
assistance with drug costs. For example,
if the net annual family income is over
CA$30,000 the family deductible will
be equal to 3% of the net income (i.e.
CA$1000). Once this deductible has been
reached, Pharmacare would provide 70%
coverage of drug costs for the rest of the year.
‘PharmaNet’
At the point of dispensing, the pharmacist
checks the patient’s Pharmacare plan using
‘PharmaNet’. This enables the pharmacist
to charge the patient the correct price for
their medication based on their deductible.
All pharmacies in BC have access to
‘PharmaNet’, allowing them to see all
prescriptions dispensed for that patient within
BC. This minimises the potential for drug
interactions which result from prescriptions
being dispensed by multiple pharmacies.
Other information stored on ‘PharmaNet’
includes drug allergies, clinical conditions,
Æ
34 Pharmacy Professional | July/August 2010 July/August 2010 | Pharmacy Professional 35