Target pharmacists seek protection as Wal-Mart secures patient records

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/target-pharmacies-seek-protection-as-wal-mart-secures-patient-records/article22753777/?cmpid=rss1

Wal-Mart Canada Corp. has moved quickly to acquire some pharmacy patient records of insolvent Target Canada, even as its franchised pharmacists gear up for a fight. Already last week, Target transferred the patient records at its three corporately owned pharmacies to Wal-Mart, according to a court filing.

But representatives for Target Canada’s other pharmacists, who are franchised and are in the vast majority of the retailer’s 133 stores, will ask the court soon to set up a fund for them similar to the one it created for its 17,600 employees, who are all being let go. Owed hundreds of thousands of dollars, the franchised pharmacists say Target should let them stay in their stores beyond the end of February, when they are being told to leave.

While creditors are lining up to nab Target’s remaining assets, the franchised pharmacists have the added burden of debts from having invested in their drugstore rollouts. They hired their own staff and bought inventory – and now they need to sell their patient records to other pharmacies.  On Friday, Target Canada mistakenly posted on its pharmacists’ websites a notice that their patient files were being transferred to Wal-Mart, said Dan Dimovski, co-owner of the Target Windsor pharmacy and president of the pharmacists’ association. The posting was removed several hours later but caused much uncertainty and stress among Target’s pharmacists, he said.

Filed under: General Problems