May 4 – 10 is Mental Health Week!
With so much going on, it’s important to pay attention to your mental health and take the necessary steps to ensure your well-being.
Effective May 4, 2020, the dispensing pharmacies for the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDs Drug Treatment Program (BC-CfE) will begin entering antiretroviral (ARV) prescriptions in PharmaNet.
The College would like to remind pharmacists of the importance of positively identifying patients and ensuring that patients understand the medication they are taking and how to take it appropriately to optimize therapy, promote adherence and ensure safety.
We are living in unprecedented times. As our health system continues to restructure itself in response to COVID-19, I want to take this opportunity to recognize all of BC’s pharmacy professionals for your unwavering commitment to the people of British Columbia.
In order to maintain your drug administration certification, practising pharmacists must hold valid certificates in both first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person first aid and CPR courses are no longer available. As a result, some providers are extending certification expiry dates.
As the COVID-19 global health pandemic continues to impact nearly every aspect of peoples’ professional and personal lives, health professionals are likely aware of online and social media-driven conversations about the use of anti-malarial, antibiotic and antiviral therapies to treat COVID-19 patients.
There has been various conflicting reports and information about ibuprofen and its effect on people suffering from COVID-19 symptoms. Early reports indicated NSAID drugs could worsen the effects of the virus.
Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry has issued an order providing criteria and guidance for exempting essential workers from the self-isolation requirements for people who have travelled outside of Canada and returned on or after March 12, 2020.
The order provides self-isolation guidance for essential workers who provide services that are considered critical to preserving life, health, public safety and basic societal functioning and who have been determined by the leadership of their organization to be critical for delivery these essential services.
On March 16, 2020, in a joint statement on B.C.’s COVID-19 response, Minister of Health, Adrian Dix and B.C. Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry announced that patients will be able to obtain refills of their regular prescriptions at pharmacies in an effort to avoid non-essential physician visits and free doctors to treat COVID-19 cases.
The College has received multiple reports from community pharmacies in BC of a phishing scam targeting patients for their personal information.