Canada

Galen Weston? Unethical? Unimpossible!

I remember a period of time where I was being prescribed three medications (all pretty minor) and they insisted I do a medication review. They get to bill the province $70 for those and they have a quota to hit.

I learned later on that medication reviews aren't just checking boxes off the list, but intended to ensure that patients are using their prescriptions safely and effectively, helping to identify any potential drug interactions/side effects, and consider alternative drug regimens. This never happened in my medication reviews, they were just 2 minute checkbox exercises.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The crux of the lawsuit concerns how corporate practices like imposing targets on the volume of medication reviews, cutting back support staff hours, and other mandates to increase revenue, have allegedly put Shoppers Drug Mart franchise owners, who are also pharmacists, in an "irredeemable conflict of interest."

The lawsuit was filed in the wake of a CBC News investigation, which revealed how some former Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacy employees believe the company is taking advantage of Ontario's medication reviews program, MedsCheck, by pushing staff to bill the government for consultations patients don't necessarily need.

The Ontario College of Pharmacists has since said it's working with a legal team to explore its options after thousands of pharmacy employees came forward to share "deeply troubling" stories about corporate pressure to perform those billable services.

For the proposed class of current franchise owners, the lawsuit alleges corporate practices, like medication review targets, interfere with their ability to use their professional judgment as pharmacists and to care for patients safely and effectively.

A Shoppers Drug Mart spokesperson previously told CBC News the decision to deliver a professional service, like a medication review, must be made by a pharmacist using their judgment.

That includes working with the associates on a yearly plan that is specific to the pharmacy's unique situation and patient needs in the community," said the previous statement from spokesperson Catherine Thomas.

The original article contains 729 words, the summary contains 229 words. Saved 69%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Nationalization of Loblaws needs to happen.

Damn, beat me to it.

Related video (also available in the article): https://piped.video/watch?v=aXNTbdl2308

So some store owners are squabbling with head office... not seeing much to benefit consumers in any of this.