Pharmacists' Letter to Premier

If you are not going to protect safety of patients - share the liability Association tells Premier.
As with all information distributed by the Association of Allied Health Professionals Sue's Blog will post the complete document - in order to give people the opportunity to see the complete message.
Sue's Blog also encourages all pharmacists to send their stories - anonymously - to help the public understand the problems facing your profession in Newfoundland and Labrador.
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October 25, 2006

Honourable Danny Williams, Premier

Government of Newfoundland and Labrador

Confederation Building, East Block

P.O. Box 8700

St. John's, NL

A1B 4J6

Premier Williams:

No doubt you are aware of the actions that have been taken in recent weeks by hospital pharmacists, to ensure public safety during the critical shortage of hospital pharmacists that we are experiencing.

We presume that you have been well briefed on the issues, and are aware that we have lost 15 hospital pharmacists over the last 18 months. There are vacancy rates of 25% to 50% in our hospitals. Recruitment is all but impossible, as it takes almost six years to fill a vacancy. Many pharmacists have been removed from direct patient care roles to meet daily dispensing needs and are working excessive hours to meet demand. This is creating greater potential for adverse drug events and medication errors, which would be preventable if vacancies for hospital pharmacists were filled.

There are 7.5 adverse incidents per 100 hospital admissions in Canada, and about half of these are related to medication. Numerous studies have shown that pharmacists, working in direct patient care roles, can reduce the risk of error by up to 90%. As well, patient care costs are reduced by more than 50% when pharmacists provide direct patient care.

With the increased pressure on our remaining pharmacists, and the reduction or removal of their direct patient care duties, retention is now an issue. If these matters are not addressed in the near future, we are in danger of losing more hospital pharmacists. In fact, an internal study has found that 85% of hospital pharmacists are considering opportunities elsewhere. This should be tremendous cause for concern, in terms of public safety. If our hospitals continue to lose pharmacists, the situation will become dire indeed. We cannot allow that to happen.

To protect public safety, pharmacists have taken a series of actions over the last two weeks. Our decisions to limit the number of chemotherapies formulated to six per hour, and restrict overtime hours to two per day (after the usual eight hour shift), were both made to minimize the potential of an adverse drug event. The situation as it existed before these measures were implemented was posing substantial risk and was not sustainable over the long term.

As we enter week three of our campaign, we are now calling upon your government to accept shared liability in the event that a major error – a sentinel event – occurs in our hospital pharmacy system. Pharmacists are extremely concerned about public safety, have advised government of the risk this workload poses for patients and will not expose themselves to further liability unless it is shared by government. Because the solution to this crisis rests in the hands of government, we believe you should stand with us in the event that a tragedy occurs.

There has been some contact from officials within your government, but no serious discussions have taken place to seek a resolution to this crisis. We know that there is recognition within government of the urgent nature of this problem. We appeal to you to make an executive decision and empower the appropriate people to deal swiftly and effectively with what is fast becoming a public health crisis in Newfoundland and Labrador.