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Three community pharmacy-led services have the potential to save up to Canadian CAD$25.7bn in cumulative health and economic benefits over 20 years, according to a report by the independent research organisation the Conference Board of Canada.
Expanding existing smoking cessation services, advanced medication reviews for cardiovascular disease and pneumococcal vaccination in community pharmacy settings could save between CAD$2.5bn and CAD$25.7bn between 2015 and 2035 depending on patient uptake, says its report ‘The value of expanded pharmacy services in Canada’, published on 25 April 2017.
The biggest cash benefits would come from advance medicine reviews and management for cardiovascular disease which would save between CAD$1.9bn and CAD$19.3bn in health efficiencies and increased work productivity.
Rolling out smoking cessation has the potential to save between CAD$563m to CAD$5.6bn while offering pneumococcal vaccination could bring in between CAD$206m to CAD$761m, they say.
All three services would also generate a “large cumulative” direct cost return on investment for each dollar spent of up to CAD$2.30 for cardiovascular disease intervention, CAD$9.10 for smoking cessation, and CAD$72.00 for pneumococcal vaccination.
