A recent announcement by the government that local pharmacies will no longer be contracted for their local nursing homes has caused a certain amount of consternation in communities. For much of the local population, the issue first came forward during a visit to Boissevain by NDP leader Wab Kinew on January 16. In some cases, pharmacies themselves knew something was up for a while.
Brent Hazlewood of Hazlewood Drugs said a couple of weeks ago they received almost identical faxes from Manitoba Health and Prairie Mountain RHA.
“They sent us a fax and a letter,” Hazlewood said, “saying ‘thanks for your years of service’, but really ‘thanks but no thanks.’”
He said the contract to supply medications to Evergreen Place and Westview Lodge had to be renewed every couple of years, but they figured something was up by last summer.
Traditionally, the government would negotiate fees for the service with the provincial pharmacists association. Then Manitoba Health did not want to deal with them, instead wanting to do individual negotiations with each home and pharmacy. From there came a request for proposals in August. Hazlewood said that was a document over 90 pages in length, which they spent a fair bit of time filling out.
“We sent it in in mid-September and were supposed to hear in October. We never heard anything until they made the announcement.”
The government has stated that all of the regional health authorities in the province will be contracting virtually all pharmacy services from MediSystem Pharmacy Manitoba in Winnipeg, a company based in Ontario. This will impact over 100 personal care homes in the province, which Hazlewood said is around 8,000 beds. Some of the stated reasons for the change included standardizing the quality of services and overall cost savings.
Hazlewood said he has called Prairie Mountain Health to discuss the situation, but has not been able to connect. The health authority did not respond to requests for comment for this article by press time.
Hazlewood figures they will lose 60 clients in Westview and Evergreen, which is substantial. However, he added there was other work that came with that, so there will be a bit of a balance. His major concern, however, is for the clients themselves. If the medicines come out of Winnipeg, how will they be able to respond to sudden need for drugs like antibiotics?
“If someone needs something like that, they are either going to have lots of stock, which will likely go out of date before it’s used,” he explained, “or they will have to go to Winnipeg for it, which takes time. I don’t think the level of service will be there. It will be physically impossible.”
Mayor David Stead is also upset with the situation. He said the problems are two fold. One is that local business is being farmed out to others. The other, again, is access.
“Why are we sending money to Ontario?” Stead asked. “In these small communities, why not put the money back in our own communities instead of sending it to Ontario? I’m sure it won’t save money. What if we have a bad winter? Will they be able to get the medication here?”
Stead added it was similar to the announcement in 2017 that Boissevain would be among the small communities losing its ambulance service. Why does the Conservative government seem intent on hurting its most loyal base?
“It seems like another move against us. The Conservative government is hurting people in the country, the people that support them. I don’t know where this came from.”
by PAUL RAYNER, Recorder staff