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These concerns are also the government'; The Ministry of Health is currently investigating drug utilisation and costs through its Drug Programs Reform Secretariat. It's inviting input from such organizations as the Ontario Pharmacists' Association which released a position paper on mail order pharma- cies in November. According to the OPA's manager of government affairs, utili- sation, rather than cost, is the govemment‘s major concern. "In my discussions with the Ministry, they'd like to see the pharmacists do a bet- ter job on counselling patients because people are getting too many prescriptions or prescriptions where there's an adverse reaction from drugs they're already tak- ing," Gary Sands says. "lt's the utilisation of drugs that's a problem in the [rovince and that's something mail order doesn't address. Seniors on a prescrip- tion, for instance. buy over-the-counter remedies for things like coughs and colds that mail order doesn't sell." Sands said the Secretariat should release its findings to the Ministry during the summer and legislation should be forthcoming in the fall. JustwhatthiswillmeantoDonManoreofManorePharrnacyisyettoheseen. Right now. he isn't worried about loss of business, although he could see that newlyestablished pharmacies could be. He's been at his Kerr Street location for 23 years and has built up a faithful clientele - many of them senior citizens - that he says won't desert him for mail order companies. If the Ministry of Health triesthemailorderroute.heissuregreypowerwillriseupinprctest "When people get used to service, they're not going to do without it." he says. “Service is the key." The mail order industry, he says, is "just a renegade” that is overly optimistic about its potential for saving firms money. 'General Motors in the States tried it and found it didn't save them anything." notes Manore. "Any savings they made on fees is swallowed up with the quanti- ties dispensed." er utilization and wastage. In other words, mail order patients tend to receive a greater supply than they need and then throw them out. Another danger he cites lies in "polypharmacy" Because mail order companies provide only a limited number of products, patients get the rest from their phar- macies. Because pharmacists have no file on what medications patients - espe- cially elderly patients - are receiving via courier or mail order, they are at risk of prescribing others that will lead to complications. And that could push patients into hospital, thus adding to health care costs. "If there may be a possible interaction, I can't sell them a medication," notes Girgis. 'Td be sued if something happens to them." ing to provide the health care we went to school for, there's no reason for us to be In this profession anymore." By his own admission. they may not be. Girgis says studies estimate that half the pharmaceutical companies in Canada will be out of business should the provin- cial Ministry of Health send their drug benefit packages to mail order outlets. Besides losing Ministry dollars, established pharmacists could lose out on tyployer-sponsored drug plan revenues, the bulk of the mail order business. Gint. arg.ues that companies' claims of saving money are counteracted by high- "A five-year study iii the US. deiemtined that when pharmacists intervene in the Patients health care, patients get better faster, get out of hospital sooner and stay healthier when out of hospital. And that saves money," he says. But are most pharmacists too busy to discuss the prescriptions they are filliht t/ith their patients? Girgis says he always does, whether the patient asks ques- tions or not and, if others don't, they should. He maintains patients who are not receiving personalized service from one pharmacist should go to another who does offer it. He is certain more will, if Canada follows the lead of the US. which recently enacted legislation requiring "pharmacists to make all reasonable efforts to com- municate with (medicare and medicaid) patients in person." Says Girgis: "Pharmacists (here) need to wake up and smell the coffee. We .entered this profession as health care providers and if we're not going to be will- The Oakville branch of the Canadian Red Cross Society has Issued a warning about two teenage take and, had the pharmacist not caught it, the patient would have died, as he surely would have had his prescription been tilled by a dmg courier company gly‘mver sees the patient," Girgis contends. Pharmacists worry about future Red Cross warns about fraudulent fundraising “pd N (Continued trom page 2) boys fraudulently conducting a door- to-door fundraising campaign in Glen Abbey on behalf of the Red Cross. The boys were carrying a metal can, a blank sheet of paper and did not have proper identification, said Frederick. While the Oakville Red Cross is currently soliciting funds through a The boys, who appeared to be 15- years old. are not sanctioned by the Red Cross, said Mary Ellen Frederick, executive director of the Oakville Branch of the Canadian Red Cress Society Frederick said they have received a complaint from a Glen Abbey woman about two teenage boys can- vassing the area on behalf of the Red Cross at 5 pm Sunday. ttttlil-tiii-ill: THE OAKVILLE BEAVER 845-5585 . BOX #5180 direct mail campaign to 1,300 Red Cross donors, they do not have a door-to-door fundraising campaign. "Any fundraising done on behalf of the Red Cross has to be coordinat- ed by the Red Cross," she said. "We don't want people to think they are giving money to the Red Cross and they are giving it to kids on the street. "If people come door-to-door and can't show proper identification you need to be pretty suspicious," she said be asked to present proper identificse tion. 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