Pharmacy grads for shortage still 2 years off
Last Updated: Friday, March 26, 2010 | 9:04 AM AT
CBC News
Administrators at the Maritimes' only pharmacy school have no plans to increase enrollment but are expecting the first graduates from the University of Waterloo can help address a national shortage of pharmacists.
With hundreds of pharmacist jobs vacant across the country, Neil MacKinnon, associate director with Dalhousie University's pharmacy program, said his school has already moved to address the shortage.
"About five or six years ago we increased our class size from 65 students per year to 90," said MacKinnon.
"There's one new pharmacy school that opened up in Canada two years ago at the University of Waterloo."
That new school will release its first graduates into the job market in two years.
The P.E.I. Pharmacists Association told CBC News this week the national shortage means there is constant strain on the 180 pharmacists in the province.
Many jobs have been vacant for months. Some pharmacists are working long hours and have to find help from outside the province to take holidays.
An expanded Shoppers Drug Mart in downtown Charlottetown has been unable to attract any pharmacists to cover another 24 hours a week of extended hours.
The owner said he did not get a single response to his job posting.
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