Could giving pharmacists ability to prescribe medications ease pressures on family doctors?

In a province where almost a million people are without a family doctor, some believe pharmacists could play an important role in taking pressure off the primary care system if they were given the ability to prescribe medication for minor ailments. Dr. Ramneek Dosanjh, president of Doctors of B.C., said expanding the powers available to pharmacists is not the best way to support family doctors. “Prescribing and giving other options at this time is not the way to do things,” she said at the news conference Thursday. “We have a crumbling foundation of our primary care system. And that is what we need to support.”