New Brunswickers will soon no longer be able to win prizes for prescriptions and pharmacy services.
The College of Pharmacy in New Brunswick decided at its annual general meeting on Saturday to ban pharmacies from offering incentives to consumers, including cash, prizes, coupons or points for certain purchases related to pharmacies.
The regulatory change takes effect on July 13 to give pharmacies time to adjust services.
“This change has been under discussion for a long time,” Adele Wallace, president of the New Brunswick College of Pharmacy, said in a press release.
“The college must provide a regulatory environment in which decisions about patient health care are based solely on the patient’s health without any other real or perceived conflict of interest.”
Wallace said she was pleased with the decision, which would allow the New Brunswickers to choose their pharmacy based solely on the quality of care without the influence of incentives.
This policy has become a trend throughout Canada, with New Brunswick being the seventh state to implement it.
British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador have already banned incentives for consumers to make recipes.
Anastasia Siamptanis, a registrar at the New Brunswick College of Pharmacy, said the decision was made because pharmacists are being asked to play a bigger role in Canadian healthcare.
“With the development of our role among regulators, there is a growing perception that incentives for consumers for prescriptions and pharmacy services are unethical for the profession and a conflict of interest,” Shiamtanis said.
She said most Canadians no longer receive these awards for prescriptions and pharmacy services.
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