Demonstrations took place at locations across Alberta on Thursday as pharmacists voiced their concerns with the provincial budget cuts that they say go too far.
In Calgary, the protesters marched downtown from the 4 Street CTrain station to the McDougall Centre for a late morning rally opposing the cost-cutting measures of the provincial government targeting pharmaceutical services.
“We basically want to get back in the room with government to talk about how we can reduce some of the costs in our health care system,” said Mark Percy, clinical practice lead for an independent chain. “With the recent budget, there were some cuts to the pharmacy practice allowances and budget that we have for our pharmacy services and those cuts will definitely impact patient care as things move forward.”
“We want to make sure that the patients know, that the public knows, that this will impact them going forward.”
The province has planned to decrease pharmacist budgets but pharmacist wages in Alberta are expected to remain higher than their counterparts in the majority of provinces. Alberta is attempting to save $150 million over the span of two years.
“It’s not necessarily the pay cut that’s the issue. The issue that’s coming forth is that our government has announced a plan that is fairly shortsighted,” said Alzeen Virji, a pharmacy manager. “The big issue that’s going to come out of this is that patient services are going to be not necessarily cut, but not as accessible.”
“Pharmacists are the most accessible health care professional and, with the changes that have been made, it’s going to become a lot more difficult to maintain that level of service.”
Simultaneous rallies were held in Edmonton, Red Deer, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat.
With files from CTV's Mark Villani
