Local pharmacists are feeling more than a pinch as cutbacks continue to erode revenues.
    The Alberta Government’s budget introduced on March 7, brought with it another cut for pharmacists. It is planning to reduce generic drug prices from 35 per cent of brand name drug prices to just 18 per cent come May 1.    
    This is a big cut for area pharmacists, and according to Ray Ainscough of Riverside Value Drug Mart, it is the culmination of previous cuts, which has them on the ropes.
    “This is our third cut in a period of three years,” said Ainscough. “Basically in the last three years they have taken $400 million out of pharmacist’s pockets each year.”
    He says the government has allowed them to add additional services to their existing businesses, but that only equated to $40 million.
    “$400 million away and $40 million back, somehow it doesn’t really balance,” he says.
    According to a press release from the Alberta Pharmacists Association, traditionally the revenue earned through generic drugs by pharmacists has offset the underfunding of pharmacy service fees. The fees that pharmacists can charge have not changed since 2005 and have only increased 52 cents since 1991.
    He estimates these changes could add up to a 20-30 per cent decrease for his business. As a pharmacist he is willing to add more services and feels it is a step in the right direction, but the cuts make it difficult.
    “They want us to do more, it is a great idea and we are all for it, however when you are taking that much money out of my pocket, I have to think about laying off staff, and changing hours. If I have to do that, then where is my time to do these extra things?” he asks.
    Pat Doyle of the Medicine Shoppe, which operates out of Freson Bros IGA said one of the toughest part of the changes is no one saw it coming.
    “This was a unilateral decision by the government. There had been some consultations but they didn’t expect this,” said Doyle. “We have been given some concessions in the last “beat down” or cuts with new services we can charge for, but this had nothing.”
    He said that nation-wide they were looking at dropping the price of a few generics to 18 per cent of brand, but the Alberta Government went a step way beyond and did it with all generics.
    “This is going to take a quarter million dollars of my revenue,” he said.
    “It will hurt us, but we’ll survive, it’s the ones out in Hanna for instance, that only do maybe 60 prescriptions a day because they only have one or two doctors … they are barely going to survive.”
    Doyle agrees that fees they are now able to charge are not even close to making up for what they have lost.
    “There is going to have to be a new funding model or some of the services we have provided for free, we are going to have to charge for. If you want me to answer some questions, it is going to cost you,” he said. “If someone phones with questions, we give them answers, now maybe you might have to come in for a counsel, and it may cost you.”
    Ainscough sees changes on the horizon with this model.
    “I’ll have to make some serious decisions here, I always say Riverside will go on, but will it have the same staff or the same hours? I don’t know. When you go from black to red you have to make some changes.”
    “Stores are going to close because of this.”

Last week, more than 350 students at DVSS accepted Rachel’s Challenge to make their community a better place. On March 21 and 22, the DVSS Friends of Rachel (FOR) Club, named after and inspired by the first student killed in the Columbine School shooting, took students on an emotional journey of sharing and learning about bullying and issues affecting students every day. Teacher Lynn Hemming said it was an intense experience for students to address such personal feelings, some describing the experience as the best therapy they could imagine. They joined thousands internationally who have accepted the challenge.