Manitoba pharmacists will soon have ability to prescribe birth control, HIV medications

Pharmacists in Manitoba will soon be able to prescribe birth control, the province's health minister revealed this week in an announcement that came as a pleasant surprise to the industry.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara told the legislature Wednesday that granting pharmacists the means to assess and prescribe contraceptives is a "very reasonable expansion of scope for pharmacists in Manitoba."

The minister added in an interview the government is moving "very quickly" on the changes, which will take effect "in the coming days and weeks."

"We're trying to get it out the door as quickly as we can for pharmacists across the province who have been asking for this for years," they said.

Pharmacists will also be able to prescribe HIV medications beginning this summer, a government official said.

Manitoba, Ontario and the three territories are the only places in Canada that do not currently allow pharmacists to prescribe birth control.

Emergency contraceptives, such as the Plan B pill, are currently available without a prescription from pharmacies.

"Right now in Manitoba, pharmacists do not have the ability to practise at their full scope, the way that they should," said Asagwara, who pledged "to go even further" in granting pharmacists more prescribing authority.

Members of the industry association Pharmacists Manitoba were in the legislature to watch question period Wednesday, after they were informed that Liberal MLA Cindy Lamoureux would ask questions about pharmacists' scope of practice.

In her first question, Lamoureux asked if the government planned to "enable and empower pharmacists who directly assess and prescribe contraception."

The question prompted a sometimes rare occurrence in question period: a direct answer to the question posed.

"The short answer to that question, for the member of Tyndall Park, is yes," Asagwara said.

Britt Kural, the pharmacy practice adviser with Pharmacists Manitoba, said she was "pleasantly surprised" by the response.

"We had no idea that there was going to be something right around the corner," said Kural.

The pharmacist said she believes she and her colleagues will be able to prescribe products like daily oral birth control pills, hormonal injections and IUDs, but the province hasn't provided those details yet.

Currently, a patient must go to a doctor's office or a nurse practitioner to receive a prescription for birth control, and must then visit a pharmacist to pick it up.

This regulatory change will save patients from seeing a doctor or nurse practitioner.

"Quite often pharmacists are a first point of care for many people in Manitoba, because they don't have access to a primary care physician or a nurse practitioner, especially in rural and remote communities," Kural said.

She couldn't estimate what kind of uptake pharmacists will see, but said her profession is eager to help.

Women's Health Clinic executive director Kemlin Nembhard said any step toward making prescription birth control more accessible is worth celebrating.

The change will make contraceptives easier to access for people without a family doctor, or for young people who worry about their parents finding out, she said.

While Manitoba's NDP government has been offering free prescription birth control since October of last year, Nembhard said some hurdles to accessing these contraceptives persist, such as the requirement to have a health card. It's one of the reasons the clinic runs a free birth control program, funded entirely through donations.

"It would be great for us to get funding through the province to support that program," Nembhard said.

Kural said Manitoba's pharmacists would like to further expand their prescribing authority. Some options could include prescriptions to treat the minor ailments pharmacists are already assessing, such as strep throat, ear infections and cold sores, Kural said.

Any such move would require regulatory changes from the province.