Regarding this announcement to offer Paxlovid as a priority to people with a weakened immune system, I wonder about the rapid access to the drug.
Paxlovid must be taken within five days. To get it, it takes a prescription. We know how difficult it is to get a medical appointment, especially outside major urban centres, for those who are among the indecent number of people who do not have a family doctor. Private clinics in the regions generally reserve a single visit without an appointment per day for those who do not have a doctor in the establishment. So we make a useless visit to Clic Santé hoping to win the lottery appointment from the time of posting. And we are legion to have our finger on the key.
It is obvious that an immunocompromised person will not rush to the emergency room after obtaining a positive result for a rapid test to obtain a prescription. The risk is too great, and the visit would unnecessarily clog the emergency room. The objective of the drug is on the contrary to unclog them.
It is therefore good that the government gives a drug in priority to those it could protect. But without quick access to a prescription, there’s no point. In Quebec, there are two kinds of citizens with regard to health. Those who have a doctor, and the outcasts who don’t. So, the cry from the heart of the president of the College of Physicians is corporate sham.
However, if pharmacists who have access to the files of these immunocompromised people could prescribe Paxlovid, or if they had quick access to a doctor to obtain a prescription for orphan patients who meet the criteria, that would accelerate the movement, that would reduce hospitalizations and deaths.
A new drug targeted for those who are at risk, yes, but how to access it quickly? It is an unanswered question, in our health system which is constantly deteriorating. Multicausal problems, to which I obviously do not have the solution, any more than most of us, alas! However, why not facilitate rapid access to prescriptions, since rapid access to doctors seems insoluble? Pharmacists are extremely competent and accessible professionals.