Toronto: Ontarians will be able to stop in at pharmacies across the province to receive prescriptions for thirteen common ailments as of January 1, 2023, including rashes, pink eye, insect bites, and urinary tract infections with just their health card. This service makes it more convenient to access care by removing a doctor’s office visit and will come at no extra cost to Ontarians.
Ontario is making it more convenient for people to connect to care closer to home by launching pharmacist prescribing for some of the most common medical ailments.
Sylvia Jones, Ontario’s Deputy Premier and Minister of Health said today in a news release that Ontario is expanding the ability of pharmacists to easier, faster, and more convenient to access health care in their community by putting people at the center of our healthcare system by stopping by your local pharmacy for quick and easy access to treatment for some of your most common ailments closer to home.
Pharmacists will be able to offer prescriptions for:
- hay fever (allergic rhinitis);
- oral thrush (candidal stomatitis);
- pink eye (conjunctivitis; bacterial, allergic and viral);
- dermatitis (atopic, eczema, allergic and contact);
- menstrual cramps (dysmenorrhea);
- acid reflux (gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD));
- hemorrhoids;
- cold sores (herpes labialis);
- impetigo;
- insect bites and hives;
- tick bites (post-exposure prophylaxis to prevent Lyme disease);
- sprains and strains (musculoskeletal); and
- urinary tract infections (UTIs).
Facilitating pharmacists to prescribe for these common ailments will not only be more convenient for Ontarians to receive the care they need, it will also help free-up doctors’ bandwidth to provide care for more complex needs, helping to reduce wait times for these services.
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