To whom it may concern,

It has been ten months since the Ontario’s Community Pharmacies Coalition campaign was launched.  During that time we stood up for pharmacy and for community health care and we thank all of you who participated for your dedicated and ongoing effort, time, and support.

The Coalition’s campaign was focused on a majority government that was determined to achieve specific endpoints dating back to 2006, and despite our best efforts, and loud united voice, they implemented drastic changes.

The pharmacists and pharmacy organizations that played a role in the campaign should be recognized for their many achievements, including:
• a unified voice for pharmacy and patients
• tremendous grassroots activism and political engagement
• the establishment of community pharmacy as a critical stakeholder with government
 
Not only were these efforts successful in delaying changes originally slated to be implemented in the fall of 2009, they also resulted in a transition approach on the private portion of pharmacy business and a transition fee that will initially help to soften the blow.  Unfortunately, this transition fee helps only modestly and for a short time, as the financial picture for pharmacy in Ontario definitely darkens beginning in April 2011.

As a result, pharmacy operators are now assessing their businesses to determine what they need to change to remain economically viable.  It is likely that these changes will include looking at a number of options to reduce costs, streamline operations to find efficiencies, change hours and modes of operation, increase sales, adjust prices, and/or charge for services.  

These matters are all the individual decisions of operators, and clearly the pharmacy market is beginning to show signs of change.  We know these changes will continue to unfold over the coming days, months and years.
 
Where do we go from here?  
 
While a defined, structured and funded campaign did end with the passing of the regulations, there is still much work to be done.  We stood up for pharmacy and our patients to try to effect change in a particular way, but it is now time to adjust our course.
 
Before we talk about the future, however, we wish to thank all those who worked tirelessly on the campaign.  You met with MPPs (often more than once).  You rallied and organized rallies.  You talked to your patients and other customers and held public information sessions in your pharmacies.  You delivered a million petition signatures.  You were spokespeople for the media.  You travelled the province – some on a bus – delivering our common message.  And you did so much more.  To each of you who contributed, in any way small or large, we thank you and the entire pharmacy community owes you a debt of gratitude. 

Some of our members spent incredible amounts of time away from their regular jobs and their families to form and lead the Coalition.  For many of them the time has come to re-focus on tasks within their individual organizations.  As a result, and based on current funding and resources, we will be changing the Coalition activity steering process.  One thing, however, will not change:   OPA, IPO, and CACDS will continue to work together into the future on our issues of common interest. 

Pharmacies are making choices now — some of them are very difficult ones.  However, we know that we are at our best when we are working together.  We are at our best when we speak with a common voice.  Our objective will always be to provide the highest level of pharmacy care for the people of Ontario.  

We understand that we are a long way from that goal and there is critically important work to be done to ensure that pharmacy professional services funding is structured properly so that the best health care outcomes can be achieved.  To do so, we must continue to work together.
 
A key area of our focus over the coming months will be the collection of data on the impact of the reforms.  We will continue to measure the economic state of pharmacies in Ontario and how this affects patient access to frontline health care.  We will use this data to build and support our case and solutions in future discussions with the government and public.  
 
While this work unfolds over the summer, the Associations that are the backbone of the Coalition will focus on working with you to collect this data.  The data from our research, which will be handled confidentially through a third party, will help inform our public positioning, and updates will be provided periodically via the Coalition website.

Thank You.