HealthPRO Canada News

Buyers Be Aware: The Lessons of COVID-19 with André Picard

Among its many unfortunate impacts, COVID-19 has permanently embedded some new words in our vocabulary: new normal, social distancing, pivoting, unprecedented, wave. In introducing The Globe and Mail’s award-winning journalist André Picard, HealthPRO’s President and CEO Cynthia Valaitis mentioned those words and another quite familiar to those in the audience, procurement.

Valaitis also thanked those listening for their tireless efforts. “HealthPRO would like to take this opportunity to recognize our members in the procurement departments, pharmacies, and shared service organizations whose skill and expertise in sourcing was critical to patient care,” said Valaitis.

As some familiar issues are beginning to re-emerge, like deadly outbreaks at long-term care homes, we spoke with André Picard about what Canadians learned during the first wave of the pandemic.

Here are the key takeaways from the discussion:

  1. Limiting virus spread was paramount

“Nobody really got this right, but the few countries that came close – China, Taiwan, Australia – had one trait in common – they acted quickly,” he said. “They didn't act perfectly, but they acted swiftly and decisively. Being slow and not wanting to make the tough choices just prolongs our suffering.”

It has also reminded us that after all these years, the Canadian healthcare system, and our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, has been largely hospital-centric. That’s not to say that hospitals had it easy, but with SARS and H1N1 under their belt, Picard said they were at least prepared.

  1. Supply shortages were short-lived

While it may not have felt like it at the time, Picard’s take was that shortages were both short-lived and well-handled.

Yes, there were stories of shortages and everyone needing the same PPE and drugs in large quantities and needing the supplies at the same time in significantly greater quantities, but the shortages of PPE and drugs were short-lived. The PPE and drug supply issues were fixed because procurement specialists handled the problem quickly. It was actually handled quite well,” said Picard.

  1. Fostering diversity of supply

While he believes it’s tempting – and inevitable – that Canada and the rest of the world will begin to focus on increasing their domestic production capabilities, Picard believes its more important to focus on achieving diversity of suppliers and products.

“I think we have to be careful not to close ourselves off to the world too much, especially since we are a small country,” said Picard. “What is really telling is that we're buying our vaccine from Germany and Switzerland, not the US – they're not going to share it.”

Due to the fragile nature of RNA-based vaccines, diversity of supply will be critical for producing a COVID-19 vaccine. “mRNA vaccines are not cheap, may require multiple doses, and are not easy to store, and in this regard, are problematic in multiple ways,” said Picard.

Supply chain diversity, according to Picard, fosters a more stable supply capacity, and creates system-wide redundancies that reduce the likelihood, or at least the impact, of shortages.

  1. The fate of Pharmacare

Picard was interested in – and a bit surprised by – the audience’s split responses to a poll about the likelihood of a national Pharmacare program post COVID. His view that the pandemic has dealt a blow to the chances of Pharmacare was not the view of the audience.

We have this patchwork of private and public health insurance programs and it actually does insure a lot of people,” he said. “There were dire predictions about medication availability, but during the pandemic, this patchwork held up remarkably well. There was little evidence that people lost coverage and had catastrophic outcomes during the pandemic.”

He also noted that there are changes to medication pricing coming soon. “There are some dramatic changes coming from the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) in new year,” Picard added.

But there’s another, more likely, reason why Pharmacare may fall down the rabbit hole – it’s been overtaken by another public policy priority: elder care.

“In 2019, the polls were telling us that we needed to bring prescription drug coverage under the Medicare umbrella,” said Picard. “But given what has happened in LTC homes during the pandemic, eldercare is now front and centre and Pharmacare becomes less of a priority.”

  1. Digital health is here to stay

One of the pandemic’s silver linings, according to Picard, is that we’ve made decades of progress in regard to digital health.

“In the past nine months, we’ve made a decade’s worth of progress. Prior to the pandemic, one per cent of medical consults were on the line, now it’s more like 50-90 per cent.”

Picard went on to explain that there’s still work to do to ensure that digital health is equitably accessible to people around the country. “Those who are in most need of digital health – people in the rural areas and people living in poverty, have the least amount of access to digital health, but are in most need of it.”

To cope with the increasing demand for digital health, Picard suggests that healthcare providers begin to consider their procurement strategy for technology, software, and IT services.

  1. More shortages on the horizon

You can always trust Picard to tell the unvarnished truth on questions about the murky and uncertain future. In the early stages of the pandemic, most drug shortages, were due to a drastic increase in demand. Going forward, however, Picard predicts that drug shortages are likely going to get worse as pharma-healthcare companies shift their production focuses.

“Drug companies are laying off people and closing plants that aren't profitable,” he said. “I think there's a lot of trouble on the horizon.”

Another contributing factor is the growing wave of protectionism, especially regarding PPE, medical equipment, and drugs. “One of the big changes in the pandemic, regarding sourcing, is that countries have been much more closed in on themselves,” said Picard. “So, I think that's going to be a priority all over the world. There’s going to be lots of government programs to incentivize building plants here.”

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Stay tuned for our next article in this series where we'll provide a recap of the Q&A conversation from this webinar.