Pharmacy technicians, in a community or hospital setting, are now permitted to witness and destroy narcotics as per Health Canada Circular Letter to Pharmacists in Canada No. 655. It is important to note that two health care professionals are required to witness the destruction of narcotics, which only one can be a pharmacy technicians ie. Two pharmacists or a pharmacist and a pharmacy technician. Two pharmacy technicians cannot witness and destroy narcotics.
The College attended the 8th Annual Pharmacy Technician Society of BC (PTSBC) Conference which was held on October 25th and 26th at the Delta Hotel and Conference Centre in Burnaby. This year’s conference focused on the need for communication between pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and support personnel in order to increase collaboration with respect to workflow issues, division of responsibilities, and scope of practice.
The College has reaffirmed its support of harm reduction strategies that help patients achieve better health and has endorsed the distribution of harm reduction supplies in pharmacies. The College believes that pharmacists can play a larger role in the comprehensive approach used to prevent communicable diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis by making harm reduction supplies more readily and easily available and preventing dangerous activities such as needle sharing to occur.
Volunteers are currently needed for a number of committees and subcommittees that assist the College to meet its legislated mandate. The committees are primarily made up of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, with some public representation.
The College is very proud to introduce our new 3-year strategic plan, “Quality of Pharmacy Services to Optimize Patient Outcomes”. This document lays out the strategic direction for the College over the next three years by establishing goals and objectives that cover a wide range of areas at the College and in practice.
The standard concentration of methadone is changing to 10 mg/ml. As a result, signifi cant changes were made to standards and guidelines for Professional Practice Policy 66 (PPP-66) Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT).
http://www.bcpharmacists.org/about_us/key_initiatives/index/articles/144...
Part of the evolution of our society has been built on the notion that each generation does better than the one preceding it. And so on and so on. I’ve been told that up until recently, every generation lives longer and is more prosperous than their parents. If we apply that to the professions, I suppose that could be true too, that each generation of pharmacy professionals does better than their predecessors. I think that is true. Professions evolve and advance through the accomplishments and vision of their leaders. In that way, we are dependent on constantly identifying new leaders
The QAC has proposed a focused practice review system that will directly assess the ability of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to practice safely and effectively.
The Canadian Society of Addiction Medicine Conference will take place in Vancouver September 26th-28th. This year’s theme of Addiction Care throughout the Lifespan will look at addiction care in various lifespan segments with six plenary speakers.
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The College is extremely saddened to announce the passing of Ken Medland, a board member of the College of Pharmacists of BC from 1986-1990.