Prescription medications are a necessity for many Maine residents, but if a current shortage of pharmacists continues, waiting lines for medication could grow even longer. A survey by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores found that Maine has the second worst shortage of pharmacists in the country. Maine received a score of 1.27 out of a possible 5.0, while the national average was 1.98. Maine has dropped from a score of 3.09, which the association called “about right,” in February 1998.

The shortage of pharmacists can be added to the shortage of dentists, physicians, nurses, anesthesiologists, respiratory therapists, ultrasound technicians, nuclear medicine technicians and others. To cope with this latest shortage, hospitals and pharmacies have found innovative ways to fill vacancies. Pharmacists from Eastern Maine Medical Center, for example, fill in at rural hospitals in northern and eastern Maine that wait months to fill vacant positions and where a pharmacist who works alone is hard pressed to go on vacation. While such cooperation is to be lauded, better permanent solutions are needed for a problem that will only get worse if Congress passes legislation to expand prescription drug benefits.

Currently, 3 billion prescriptions are written across the country each year. That number is expected to double by 2006. If prescription drugs are more affordable, the number will be even higher. With pharmacists filling more and more prescriptions, the error rate will naturally be higher and they have less time to counsel patients.

Many in the profession have pointed to Maine’s lack of a pharmacy school as a major cause of the problem. This may be true but building a pharmacy school in Maine would take a lot of political will and money, neither of which are in surplus. Instead, other options must be explored. Student loan forgiveness for those who go to work in underserved areas is an idea worth consideration.

At the federal level, such a proposal was supported by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in June. Expanding the number of slots Maine now buys at in-state tuition rates at pharmacy schools in southern New England also makes sense.

Finding solutions to the pharmacist shortage will pay dividends in other realms as well. Many other industries report difficulty finding skilled workers. This is where the recently created legislative task force to stem the state’s “brain drain” can come in. The group’s charge is to find ways to keep graduating high school students in the state. While this is helpful, more effort should be put into finding ways to encourage more people, especially young families some of which will include medical professionals, to move to Maine. The panel must take a broad view that includes examining ways to make the state more business friendly by revising the tax system, lowering energy costs and improving transportation routes and other infrastructure to encourage companies of all kind to locate here.

In the meantime, consumers can also play a role in ensuring that pharmacists don’t have to work long hours, suggests Anne Head, director of the state Office of Licensing and Registration. State law requires licensed pharmacies to be open at least 40 hours a week. However, many chain drug stores are open 60 to 75 hours a week. In this era of 24-hour stores and seven-day-a-week shopping, people would do well to remember that the convenience of picking up prescriptions at 9 o’clock at night comes with a price. Perhaps if it wasn’t expected that drugs would be dispensed at all hours, except in emergencies where a centralized pharmacy (probably at a hospital) would be available, the problem could better be held in check.