A new survey says New Brunswickers regard the challenge of this province’s aging population as a more serious issue than the rising cost of housing, climate change, income equality or balancing the deficit, and they believe pharmacists should play a bigger role in sustaining a high-quality health care system.
The Abacus Data survey found that 86% of New Brunswickers regard the challenge posed to our health care system by our aging population as extremely or very serious. It also found that 89% of New Brunswickers believe pharmacists are currently underused in our health care system and a large majority (91%) support allowing pharmacists to do more to help sustain a high-quality health care system given New Brunswick’s aging population.
Community pharmacist Christine Boudreau sees it every day – seniors who are unsure of the medications they have been prescribed and worried about how one drug may interact with another. A Board Certified Geriatric Pharmacist in Dieppe, NB, Boudreau provides medication reviews to make sure her patients are taking the right medication at the right time at the right dose, “deprescribes” unnecessary medications and helps patients taper off sedatives and anti-anxiety drugs such as benzodiazepines.
She estimates that in the neighbourhood where she works, half her patients are seniors. Pharmacy staff also provide off-site medication management services at several seniors’ homes in the area, as part of a collaborative team with nurses and physicians. “My job is to listen and educate, to answer any questions my patients have and work with them to improve their quality of life. Many times, during a medication review, they will discover they don’t even know why they are on a particular drug," she says.
As the number of Canadians aged 85 and over is set to triple over the next 20 years, the seniors’ care provided by pharmacists like Boudreau could play a vital role in helping our health system respond to this challenging demographic shift. By 2038 in New Brunswick, it’s expected that about 31% of New Brunswick’s population will be seniors – up from about 19.5% (2016 Statistics Canada).
“Pharmacists are ideally positioned to help alleviate some of the strain this will put on the healthcare system,” says Paul Blanchard, Executive Director of the New Brunswick Pharmacists’ Association. “In today’s environment, where we have an aging demographic putting pressure on our healthcare resources, combined with a shortage of healthcare providers, we need to make use of all available resources.”
In addition to services like medication reviews, pharmacists can provide a range of accessible health care services – all of which New Brunswickers recognize as good ideas for helping our health care system respond to the aging population.
The percentage of New Brunswickers who think it is a ‘good or very good idea’ for pharmacists to provide the following services:
- 88% - Allowing pharmacists to administer immunizations, such as the flu shot, shingles vaccine, pneumococcal vaccine and travel vaccines;
- 84% - Allowing pharmacists to prescribe medications for common or minor ailments like pink eye, UTIs or ear infections;
- 83% - Allowing pharmacists to provide medication reviews and assessments to reduce the number of unnecessary/inappropriate medications and adverse drug reactions;
- 80% - Providing health care services for geriatric patients such as medication reviews and plans for those with complex medication needs
- 76% - Allowing pharmacists to provide home-based medication assessments for seniors
- 68% -Allowing pharmacists to manage chronic conditions, such as high cholesterol, hypertension and diabetes.
Compared to the national average, New Brunswickers are more concerned about the issue and more supportive of pharmacists doing more to help, according to the survey.
The survey Canada’s Aging Population, Health care, and the Role of Pharmacists was conducted online with 3,219 Canadians residents aged 18 and over, from February 26 to March 7, 2019 by Abacus Data. It included a 500 oversample in New Brunswick. The margin of error for a comparable probability-based random sample of the same size is +/- 1.78%, 19 times out of 20.