How Sask. pharmacists are handling your prescriptions amid COVID-19

Pharmacists working to fill prescriptions Watch: Marc Smith spoke to pharmacists about how they’re keeping prescriptions filled amid COVID-19.

REGINA — Managing prescription drugs can be challenging at the best of times, but throw in a global pandemic and that can lead to more issues.

Saskatchewan pharmacists are working to make sure prescriptions continue to be filled.

Christian Rilling, owner of Dieppe Pharmacy in Regina, says they’ve been adjusting how they operate to help keep patients safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We’ve tried to do the high-impact stuff, mostly focus on that, so reducing the actual number of patients coming into the pharmacy," he said.

They offer delivery to anywhere in the city and also have automated refills to track when patients will need more medication.

Rilling says a lot of these changes were already offered by the pharmacy before the pandemic.

"People are appreciating not having to worry about managing their meds, we just call them and we keep track of their refills," he said.

The stockpiling of prescription medications was an issue early on in the pandemic.

The provincial government has since limited prescriptions to 30-day refills to avoid a shortage.

The Pharmacy Association of Saskatchewan says inhalers have seen supply issues since the pandemic began.

"That’s still a bit of a problem and it’s a day-to-day situation," Dawn Martin, Pharmacy Association of Saskatchewan CEO, said.

Martin says drug shortages in Saskatchewan are nothing new and pharmacists adapt.

"Pharmacists have been dealing with this, gosh, for way too long," she said. "In terms of trying to find alternatives, working with patients, doing different dosages, so the pandemic certainly hasn’t helped with that."

Martin says pharmacists across Canada are working together to anticipate where they may see drug shortages and working to address them before they become a larger issue.

"If we all kind of work together, I think, we can make sure to keep that supply for everyone," Rilling added.