News

Interim Executive Director Update – August 2021

It is hard to believe we are already almost a third of the way through August. I am sure like myself, you feel as if the past 18 months or so have been a blur. I do want to acknowledge all of you who are on the front lines and have been caring for patients consistently through all of this. I commend you for all of the time you have put in to vaccinate and protect Canadians against Covid-19. You have put in an unprecedented amount of hours and resources, which I have witnessed first hand and this has not been an easy task. While you so willingly roll up sleeves and inject, the average person has no idea the magnitude of organization, human resources and time all of this entails and as typical with pharmacists, we sit quietly on the side lines, doing what we do best – caring for patients and offering solutions. So I want to say Thank you to each and every one of you for doing what you do best and caring for Canadians health! It has been a challenging year for ACPC and many other organizations learning to navigate through unchartered waters. Our Board is made up strictly of volunteers who have been spread very thin themselves and with myself as a very part time interim executive director, we have still managed to make some significant advancements for our members. I am looking forward to the 2022 when we can move further ahead and continue advancing the compounding community for the betterment of all patients and practitioners. Despite the challenging times we have been facing, I am very pleased to announce that ACPC has been working with the Ontario Pharmacists’ Association in developing an insurance program specifically for compounding pharmacists/pharmacies. At this time, this is available...

Message from the ACPC President Fall 2020

[caption id="attachment_4505" align="alignnone" width="250"] Jarron Yee[/caption] [logo_carousel_pro id="4684"]As I write this, I note that as the President of your professional association we enter the AGM season with a stable membership base but the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged ACPC and its ability to operate and communicate effectively thereby compromising the kind of grass-roots organization you, as members, need and want. To that end, as a Board and members of the Association, we strive to find ways to innovate and grow our membership. Last year, many members identified the AGM as a highlight of and for their year. We had a rich agenda with a faculty that was both informative and learning centred. We were also just at the end of a federal election in 2019 and had the opportunity to understand what path the legislative and regulatory would go in the months ahead. But all that was before the pandemic hit! The new year culminated with high level meetings between our Association and the Deputy Minister of Health – it was a good way to kick off the year and we were encouraged that Health Canada wanted compounding pharmacy to participate in formulating national policy for pharmacy. Further, we are now part of the multi-stakeholder working group on issues related to the profession – including shortages. Then the pandemic hit! The pandemic itself has transformed much of the way people manage their lives and businesses operate. The isolation, the shift in priorities and the loss of jobs, social activities and other day to day things that we might have taken for granted have been transformed – likely for years to come. The COVID 19 infection is not to be taken lightly and our patients have come to expect more from us as compounding pharmacy. More to the point, the pandemic has exposed weaknesses in our...