British Columbia has introduced amendments to the Pharmacy Operations and Drug Scheduling Act, which will give the College of Pharmacists of B.C. greater ability to protect patients from unscrupulous pharmacy owners.

Health Minister Terry Lake moved first reading of the Pharmacy Operations and Drug Scheduling Amendment Act today.

In 2015, the college approached the Ministry of Health and asked the ministry to give it better legislative tools for regulating people involved in the community pharmacy industry.

The college is responsible for regulating and registering pharmacists in B.C., as well as licensing pharmacies to operate. However, it does not currently have the ability to regulate to the appropriate degree pharmacy owners, directors or other non-pharmacists involved in running the pharmacy.

While the vast majority of people involved in community pharmacies are honest and ethical, the college reports an increase in recent years of unscrupulous pharmacy practices – for example, kickbacks to methadone maintenance clients, running dirty, unsafe pharmacies and breaking PharmaCare billing rules.

The proposed amendments allow the college to require information from the pharmacy about all owners and other people involved in running a pharmacy. They also will allow the college to refuse to issue, renew or reinstate a pharmacy license if pharmacy owners, directors or officers:

• have limits imposed by the college’s discipline committee that prevent them from owning or managing a pharmacy;
• have been convicted of a recent, relevant crime;
• have committed a billing contravention against PharmaCare;
• have recently had a judgment entered against them in court regarding pharmacy practice, drugs or devices;
• have recently had their registration as a pharmacist suspended or cancelled by the college or any other body that regulates pharmacists; or
• have recently had limits or conditions imposed on their registration as a pharmacists by their professional regulatory body.

The college can also choose to impose conditions on a pharmacy licence.

These amendments will help the college prevent unsuitable people from owning or managing, directly or indirectly, community pharmacies in British Columbia.

The amendments also dovetail with the work the Ministry of Health has done in the past year, under the Provider Regulation of the Pharmaceutical Services Act. That regulation allows the ministry to better enforce the rules around pharmacies billing PharmaCare, and to stop doing business with pharmacies that do not meet those standards. To date, 28 pharmacies are no longer able to be enrolled in PharmaCare as a result of the 2015 regulation changes.