The shortage of pharmacists in the public sector is ongoing, according to the Association des pharmaciens des établissements de santé du Québec (APES), which is calling on the government to further promote the profession to solve the shortage.

About one in five positions in the provincial health network are vacant, according to the latest annual survey by the APES. This represents 280 full-time equivalent institutional pharmacists as of April 1, 2021.

“It’s already been 20 years since we’ve been observing the labor shortage, so it’s not a shortage that just happened like we hear about with other job bodies in the health network,” said APES executive director Linda Vaillant.

The situation is far from improving, the pharmacist told The Canadian Press. She said the construction of senior homes, the aging of the population, the insufficient number of graduates, and more retirements will only accentuate the need.

Vaillant said that for a long time, the newer generation of pharmacists preferred to work in neighbourhood pharmacies rather than the health network because of the better pay, creating the shortage that exists today.

But the wage gap between the private and public sectors has narrowed in recent years, and the wage catch-up measures are now consolidated in the new labour agreement with the government, she added.

Nevertheless, Vaillant believe the profession is still too far in the shadows, arguing that Quebec needs to give the profession a boost.

“I think that there is a promotion campaign that should be put forward," she said.

“We are a key player for the medical team that needs us to prescribe, to make sure the drugs are given properly. It’s a job that’s a lot of fun, but it’s not known and not valued enough.”

She points out that there is also a “job to be done” to attract undergraduates towards a master’s degree, a necessary step to practice in the health network as opposed to neighbourhood pharmacies.

APES is calling on the government to increase graduate admissions and the number of scholarships. It’s also asking for greater flexibility in the master’s program by offering distance education courses in order to facilitate the training of new pharmacists in the region.

The Legault government said it’s “already taking action to attract more pharmacy workers and enhance the value of their profession.”

“For example, we are working to train pharmacy technicians to free pharmacists from administrative tasks, or we have offered a hundred scholarships to encourage students to enroll in the master’s degree in pharmacology,” the office of the health ministry told The Canadian Press by email.

‘INSUFFICIENT’ COVERAGE

The lack of personnel is not without repercussions for the coverage of pharmaceutical care, which is “insufficient” in meeting the needs of the patients, maintains the APES.

The situation is particularly problematic in acute care, where only 27 per cent of inpatient mental health needs are covered, says the union, which represents more than 1,700 institutional pharmacists.

In emergency rooms, the coverage rate is 42 per cent. In the absence of pharmacists, some of the work can be made up by other staff, but some steps may be missed, Vaillant said.

“So it’s conceivable that errors are not being caught. There are interactions that may not be noticed, so maybe patients are experiencing some side effects. Maybe we’ll also have patients admitted who will go out and come back again because the problem was medication and it wasn’t managed.”

According to APES internal data, many CHSLDs are also without pharmacists.

Health care facilities in need may have to resort to back-up. This consists of asking either pharmacists in the network to take time off work, or external workers to come and help out in order to avoid a breakdown in services.

— This report was first published in French by The Canadian Press on Feb. 19., 2022.