August 14, 2024
A report by The Globe and Mail delves into the plan by Loblaw to become one of Canada’s largest health care providers. The Loblaw-owned Shoppers Drug Marts already offer travel vaccinations, cholesterol screening, and pharmacist consultations, in addition to selling prescription drugs.
The company wants to set up hundreds of “Shopper’s Health Clinics” in its retail stores, similar to what is already happening in Burlington, Ontario where pharmacists prescribe drugs for 19 minor ailments. Nearly every province has given additional power to pharmacists but the scope varies widely.
Jason MacLean, chair of the Canadian Health Coalition, questions whether profit-driven corporations like Loblaw should be trusted with such responsibilities.
“We’re going to have a company that was involved in break price fixing scandal, and has been boycotted very effectively by hundreds of thousands of consumers because of grocery price gouging” said MacLean to the Globe and Mail on August 9, 2024. “They’re the ones that we’re going to trust to deliver health care in our best interest? Their only interest is profit.”
Opposition is taking shape among physicians as well.
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