Mr. Chair, committee members, thank you very much for the opportunity to appear before you today to present some of our priorities for the 2016 federal budget.
We strongly believe that a healthy population is key to ensuring a vibrant and productive economy, both now and into the future. The Canadian Pharmacists Association is the national voice for pharmacy in Canada, and we're focused on advancing the health and well-being of Canadians through excellence in pharmacist care.
There are 39,000 hard-working pharmacists who work in community and hospital pharmacies across the country, and they are often the first point of contact for patients and their families within the health care system. Over the past 10 years we've seen pharmacists' scope of practice expand significantly beyond simple drug dispensing, and Canadian pharmacists are now world leaders in advanced pharmacy practice.
Today we would like to offer three recommendations for the committee's consideration. These recommendations are not only essential to the future sustainability of our health care system, but also critical to ensuring that pharmacists across the country can provide the best possible care to their patients.
The first area is improved drug access. We recommend that the federal government work with the provinces and territories, health care professionals, and other stakeholders to ensure that Canadians have access to the medication and pharmacy services they need to be healthy. As front-line health care professionals, pharmacists see the devastating impact on their patients when they are not able to afford the drugs and services they need.
We acknowledge that there are pros and cons to every potential pharmacare model. So far, a universal single-payer model has dominated the discussion; yet according to a study we released this past January, such a model would cost taxpayers an additional $6.6 billion per year. Furthermore, it could dramatically decrease the number of medications currently covered and increase wait times for new medications to receive coverage.
The Canadian Pharmacists Association believes that our first priority should be addressing the existing gaps in coverage between public and private systems to protect Canadians from undue financial hardship. In the next few weeks we will be releasing a major report looking at four potential pan-Canadian pharmacare models. This report will provide not only the costs and potential cost savings of each model, but also the qualitative benefits and trade-offs of each.
However, the cost of drugs is only one part of the puzzle. Prescription drugs represent only 13% of total health spending in Canada, and the growth in drug spending has slowed in recent years. A singular focus on cost containment instead of on improving care and health outcomes or on value for health dollars risks missed opportunities for cost savings in other areas of the health system—through effective prescribing and medication adherence, to name but two.
Pharmacare has to be about more than just the cost of drugs. After all, we're talking about pharmacare, not pharma cost. To ensure appropriate pharmacare, access to essential pharmacy services must also be part of the solution. Ensuring appropriate prescribing and medication adherence are key to overall patient health and to the long-term sustainability of any pan-Canadian pharmacare model.
The second issue of importance is e-prescribing. Our second recommendation is essential to ensuring that the right drug gets to the right patient at the right time. We recommend that the federal government invest in the development of a seamless pan-Canadian e-prescribing system. Much as it sounds, e-prescribing is the secure electronic sharing of prescription information between health providers. It is a means of communicating important prescription information between pharmacists, physicians, nurses, and other relevant providers.
When properly implemented, e-prescribing reduces the possibility of errors, it reduces back-and-forth communication between health care providers, and it allows for the integration of safety and alert systems when prescriptions are issued. Such a system will save lives and reduce health care costs. This is why we urge the federal government to work with key stakeholders, including the provinces and territories, to develop a common national standard for e-prescribing and then develop a plan to implement that standard.
Finally, the last area is improving immunization rates. We recommend that the government move forward with its election commitment to invest an additional $15 million per year towards improving immunization rates in Canada. We are very concerned that, according to recently released national data, child immunization rates in Canada are falling short of herd immunity, and we are pleased to see the government's commitment to improving immunization rates for children.
We believe that pharmacists have an important role to play in providing immunizations to Canadians. To give you just one example, between 2010 and 2012, when pharmacists were given the authority to provide flu vaccinations in Alberta, vaccination rates in the province increased almost 20%.
The existing national vaccination strategy must be revamped to increase public awareness of the importance of vaccinations and include a comprehensive approach that would further expand pharmacists' scope of practice to administer vaccines.
Thank you again for this invitation to appear. I will be happy to take questions later from the committee.