The following research article reviews publicly available responses to Schedule 5 of Ontario's Bill 16 and examines the pharmacy community's response in direct relation to the Blueprint for Pharmacy’s Vision for Pharmacy.

Ontario pharmacists' crisis over Bill 16: A missed opportunity?

Meagen Rosenthal, MA; Zubin Austin, BScPhm, MBA, MIS, PhD; Ross T. Tsuyuki, BSc(Pharm), PharmD, MSc

Introduction: In 2010, the Ontario government brought forward Bill 16, which, among other things, removed pharmacists' professional allowances. While many would disagree with this unilateral action by the Ontario government, it also could have served as a crisis for change towards patient-centred care. We sought to examine the response of the pharmacy profession in Ontario to this crisis as it relates to the vision outlined in the Blueprint for Pharmacy.

Discussion: It is notable that patient care was almost completely absent from the discussion, a reflection that our profession has not embraced patient-centred care. This also represents a missed opportunity — a crisis that could have been used to move the profession towards the Blueprint's vision. We thought that the Blueprint had already achieved this consensus, but the Ontario experience has shown that this may not be the case. Can Pharm J 2012;145:35-39.

For the full article visit www.cpjournal.ca