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The Ontario government is broadening the ability of the province’s pharmacists to provide care. On July 1, 2026, they will be able to treat nine more ailments and provide vaccinations for six diseases.

Ontario pharmacists currently treat 19 conditions, including nausea and vomiting in pregnancy, menstrual cramps, urinary tract infections, yeast infections, diaper rash, acne, tick bites, and hemorrhoids.

The nine additional conditions they will be able to treat are calluses and corns, dandruff, dry eye, head lice, jock itch, mild headache, nasal congestion, ringworm, and warts.

Ontario pharmacists will also be able to administer vaccinations for tetanus, whooping cough, diphtheria, respiratory syncytial virus, shingles, and pneumococcus. Those publicly funded vaccines are now available at points of care such as walk-in clinics and family physicians’ offices.

Building on Expanded Services

“Our government is delivering on our plan to make it more convenient for people to access the care they need closer to home,” said Sylvia Jones, Ontario’s deputy premier and minister of health, in a statement. “Ontarians have experienced firsthand the convenience of pharmacist prescribing, and this announcement continues our progress toward reducing wait times and letting more of our province’s healthcare professionals work to the full extent of their expertise.”

In 2027, Ontario’s Ministry of Health will add as many as five more conditions to the list of presentations that pharmacists can treat, said Jones.

The announcement comes at a time when 2.5 million Ontarians (about 16% of the province’s population) are without a family doctor, according to the Ontario College of Family Physicians. About 670,000 Ontarians live at least 51 km from their family doctors, making access potentially challenging, according to Upstream Lab, a nonprofit research lab based at St Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.

Pharmacists Embrace Expansion

The recent announcement from the province’s Ministry of Health was well received by pharmacy leaders in Ontario.

In an email to Medscape News Canada, Jamie Kellar, RPh, PharmD, PhD, licensed pharmacist in Ontario and associate dean at the University of Toronto’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, Toronto, applauded the decision as a way of addressing challenges in primary care access and as a move that will leverage the skills of pharmacists as healthcare providers.

“[Difficulty in] access to primary care is likely one factor, but this change is also about making better use of the health workforce,” wrote Kellar. “Pharmacists are often the first place where people already go for advice on these conditions, so this builds on care patterns that already exist. Expanding pharmacists’ prescribing for clearly defined common ailments is intended to improve timely access to care while allowing patients to receive treatment in settings they already use regularly.”

Sandra Hanna, RPh, CEO of the Neighbourhood Pharmacy Association of Canada, agreed that utilizing pharmacists to a greater extent will help to decrease the strain on the healthcare system and expedite care.

“Access pressures in the healthcare system are certainly part of the context,” she told Medscape News Canada. “Many Ontarians continue to experience challenges accessing timely primary care, and the province has identified expanded pharmacy services as one strategy to help improve access and reduce pressure on other parts of the healthcare system.”

A poll commissioned by the Neighbourhood Pharmacy Association of Canada found that 73% of Canadians would be likely to choose a pharmacy as their first stop for nonemergency health concerns if pharmacies offered more services, noted Hanna.

Relieving System Pressure

Since Ontario began expanding the scope of practice of its pharmacists, there has likely been less stress on other points of care in the healthcare system, according to Kellar.

“More than 2 million Ontarians have already accessed a pharmacist-provided service since the [expanded scope of practice] program began 3 years ago, which shows strong patient uptake and demand for timely care,” wrote Kellar. “Some of these visits may substitute for care that would otherwise occur in walk-in clinics, urgent care settings, or occasionally emergency departments, particularly for patients without a primary care provider, but we need rigorous evaluation to fully understand the system impact.”

The expanded scope of practice strategy in the province will ensure that pharmacists respond to clear-cut cases, Kellar added. “Pharmacist prescribing in Ontario is intentionally limited to specific conditions with clear criteria. The system is designed so that patients receive the right level of care: Pharmacists manage straightforward cases, and anything more complex is referred to physicians as appropriate.”

Ontario Not Unique

Ontario is not the only province augmenting the profile of pharmacists in the care team, according to Kellar. Alberta granted prescribing authority to its pharmacists as long ago as 2006.

“Most provinces already allow pharmacists to prescribe for at least some common conditions, although the scope varies,” wrote Kellar. “Alberta, for example, has one of the broadest models in Canada.”

“Pharmacists’ scope of practice has already been expanding across Canada, and Ontario is part of that broader national trend,” wrote Hanna. “Many of the additional common ailments being added in Ontario are already within pharmacists’ scope in other provinces, reflecting how jurisdictions continue to learn from one another and adopt best practices that improve patient access and care.”

In Nova Scotia, the implementation of community pharmacy primary care clinics has been associated with fewer visits to hospital emergency rooms and walk-in clinics, she added.

Kellar and Hanna reported having no relevant financial relationships.