CALGARY -- A second shipment of personal protective equipment (PPE) from the provincial government is starting to trickle down to pharmacies across Alberta. However, attached to the boxes  are invoices, provoking uncertainty among pharmacists about whether they're supposed to pay for them or not.

The equipment is being provided by the Provincial Emergency Social Services program after PPE was not available through pharmacy wholesalers at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

Calgary pharmacist and owner of The Crowfoot Medicine Shoppe Randy Howden says the his first shipment of PPE at the end of April didn’t have an invoice, but the one he received last week was accompanied with a summary order with a dollar amount included for each item and a total. Howden said this came as a complete surprise.

“It would’ve been good to know ahead of time," he said. "If they had told us ahead of time there would be a charge for the PPE, we could’ve budgeted for it and we could’ve planned for it."

No mention of cost

Margaret Wing, CEO of the Alberta Pharmacists’ Association, said on April 14 the government announced access to PPE for non-AHS facilities but at no point in that announcement was there any mention of a cost for the equipment. Wing has written a letter to Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro asking why the government wasn’t transparent about the price tag.

“We just feel that if there’s going to be a cost associated with that, that should be upfront and known,” said Wing.

“We don’t really believe the government should be in the resale of PPE business and if they want pharmacists to be purchasing this product then that product should be sent or procured to a pharmacy wholesaler through which they can purchase it.”

Furthermore, Wing says like most businesses, small pharmacies are challenged during this time with unforeseen business expenses that have been incurred to create a safe environment for staff and patients and adding another unexpected cost will make the situation even more difficult.

Wing said the health minister’s office did not respond to her letter.

Health minister response

In a statement sent to CTV late Friday afternoon, the Health Minister’s office said:

“While the government will continue providing PPE at no charge to critical service providers who are at the highest risk of exposure to COVID-19 (e.g. homeless shelters and charities), others may see a fee for future orders they request from government. This is especially true of for-profit enterprises and corporate chains.

"The government will not seek to collect funds retroactively for PPE previously provided for free. This would be on a go-forward basis, done through a transition, with an explicitly agreed to cost recovery structure (i.e. the government would not try to make a profit with markup).”

Howden says it would’ve been ideal if this information was known beforehand

“We’re happy to have PPE available for our staff to protect frontline health care workers and staff here but we would’ve liked to know exactly what we were getting ourselves into before placing the order,” he said.