Recently the Minister of Health stated that a 14 per cent wage reduction of hospital pharmacists will not impact patient care in the province. He goes on to suggest recruitment issues for clinical pharmacists are no longer present.
This is slightly true for only one jurisdiction, Vancouver. Everywhere else in the province it is very difficult to hire highly skilled clinical pharmacists. VIHA has a 13 per cent vacancy rate that is proving very difficult to reduce. A quick check of wage/benefit/holiday differences between hospitals and retail pharmacists will make it clear how difficult it is to hire clinical pharmacists in this province. Perhaps the minister needs to think of it this way.
Robert Wager
Nanaimo