“The Right Place and Time”: A Conversation with Justin Bates

featuring

Justin Bates

Featuring Justin Bates, CEO of the Ontario Pharmacists Association (OPA).

“The Right Place and Time”: A Conversation with Justin Bates

Sponsored by Mint Pharmaceuticals

A joyful cacophony of pots and pans cut through the tension of the early pandemic. Hand-made signs in windows and on balconies revealed a shared sense of hope. Bumper stickers, billboards, social media posts, and ad campaigns were all bound by the same message: Thank you, front-line workers. Thank you for keeping us safe.

One group, however, was often overlooked in our collective thanksgiving: pharmacy professional. We recently had a conversation with Justin Bates, Chief Executive Officer of the Ontario Pharmacists Association (OPA), about the effects of the pandemic and the future of community pharmacies.

According to Bates, 95% of Ontarians live within five kilometers of a pharmacy. They are an innocuous part of daily life, such a familiar sight that they often go unnoticed until they’re needed. However, the work of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians goes far beyond standing behind the counter in the local drugstore, encompassing hospital pharmacists, nursing homes, and family care units. There is even a surprising amount of diversity among traditional pharmacies, with independent community pharmacies making up over 50% of the market in addition to well-known chains, and independent pharmacies are owned and operated by pharmacists who serve their patients as a front-line provider and pharmacist-owner.

In Ontario, there are over 5000 community pharmacies where patients can access not only medication, but also advice and healthcare services. It wasn’t always this way, though. Our traditional cultural notion of a pharmacist is a white-coated figure behind a counter to whom a slip of paper is given and who, after a short wait, returns with an orange bottle of prescription pills. This figure was somewhat faceless in our popular culture; however, this concept has been entirely disrupted by the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and its ripple effect on the healthcare system. 

The pandemic placed a spotlight on pharmacy, as Bates explained, pharmacy professionals were an integral resource helping to protect public health and recognized as being accessible and out from behind the counter. They were thrust into a literal hands-on role, touching people, and developing a more holistic understanding of how patients could manage on their health journey. Even as the bustling cities around them folded in on themselves, pharmacies continued to operate. Detailing pharmacists’ experience of the early pandemic, Bates cites the questions of a public starved for answers and sound scientific knowledge. One example he gave concerned government press conferences about vaccines. Even as the health minister or premier was making comments, people would “come to the pharmacy in real-time and ask the pharmacists questions”. 

The pharmacy has always been an accessible space, but in 2020, it became one of the few accessible spaces to which the public could gain entry. From being overlooked in the city landscape, pharmacies suddenly became a source of information where none was available–or at least, that’s how they were perceived. The immense uptick in customers flocking to pharmacies in the absence of other medical facilities, such as doctors’ offices, caused a sharp increase in the stress and mental health effects on pharmacists themselves. This was compounded by the number of pharmacy professionals actually catching COVID despite wearing PPE, and those working long hours in understaffed workplaces. As the pandemic wore on, pharmacies became a necessary extension of the health care system, but this took a toll on pharmacy professionals who increasingly struggled to balance work and home life.

Add into this the tides of public opinion that began to turn. Bates cites an increase in abuse, harassment, and even break-ins and theft that began to appear as the public grew increasingly tired and agitated. Those seeking answers from pharmacies became more insistent and sometimes more aggressive, and pharmacists were put in the position of having to negotiate with complex phenomena such as vaccine hesitancy, a topic beyond the scope of a quick conversation from behind a counter.

As our conversation moved to burnout and its effects, Bates cited a 2018 study by Deloitte which found that 91% of employees who get burned out feel that it negatively impacts their work. As in many other industries, burnout became widespread among pharmacists. Typically accompanied by symptoms such as emotional exhaustion, a feeling of being overwhelmed, and general cynicism, burnout has adverse effects on safety and productivity–this, Bates noted, in an industry which was actively supporting the health care system.

In fact, Bates argued, pharmacies are a part of the health care system. Pharmacies in Ontario delivered over 50% of the vaccines which were administered to Ontarians, and pharmacists typically need six years of University schooling before being able to practice. Therefore, he said, it is essential to provide pharmacists and pharmacy technicians with the tools to build resiliency and fight burnout; in turn, this is an issue which will need to be addressed at all levels, from the government, to the education system, to within individual pharmacies.

Resilience, he continued, should be incorporated into education, should be part of curriculum, and should be taught alongside strategies to mitigate burnout. The role of pharmacies has been permanently changed, and resilience is a necessary part of adapting to a new reality. Even as technology such as video consultations and systems such as at-home delivery continue to transform the landscape, Bates believes that the solution to adapting and thriving lies in policy, education, and point of view. When asked for his central idea for moving into a flourishing future, Bates responded without hesitation: “Making the patient the center of everything we do.”

He continued by discussing the need for adequate support of pharmacists, and the need for equity within the industry. All these solutions, taken together, paint a picture of a complex, essential part of the workforce that exists within an ever-widening healthcare system and an ever-widening understanding of health. He summarized the issue simply: “We want the right person, in the right place, at the right time in the health care system.”

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