The Newfoundland and Labrador government is considering hiring more hospital technicians to help pharmacists with workloads that have been described as overwhelming.

Hospital-based pharmacists launched a three-week campaign last Thursday that will involve limits on forced overtime and, eventually, caps on the numbers of chemotherapy preparations they will prepare each hour.

Tom Osborne says the government is not disputing claims of excessive workloads from hospital pharmacists.
(CBC)

Health Minister Tom Osborne said the government is working on ways to recruit and retain pharmacists, and will also look at ways to take work off pharmacists' shoulders.

"I'm not disputing the concerns of the pharmacists at all," Osborne told CBC News.

"Obviously, if the pharmacists feel that they require more time to prepare the chemo cocktails and so on, that is something that certainly has to be looked at."

The pharmacists, represented by the Association of Allied Health Professionals, say government and health boards have been unable to fill vacancies because pay rates are significantly lower than national averages, and workloads have been climbing.

The association says pharmacists typically make twice as many chemotherapy preparations as the six suggested in clinical guidelines. Some pharmacists, the association said, make as many as 20 per hour.

Osborne said extra technical staff might help.

"That is part of the reason we're now looking at helping by adding some technicians and looking at where those technicians are needed," he said.

As part of their job action, the pharmacists want the province to share in any liability for any mistakes that are made.

Eastern Health, the largest regional health authority in Newfoundland and Labrador and which manages the provincial cancer care agency, says it has contingency plans in place for the pharmacists' job action.