{"id":27680,"date":"2025-07-27T20:42:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T20:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/27680\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T20:42:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T20:42:18","slug":"fort-smith-couple-to-open-independent-pharmacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/27680\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Smith couple to open independent pharmacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Rafiq Salehmohamed and Molly McAllister open their new Fort Smith pharmacy next month, it\u2019ll be named for their son. Sort of.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve chosen the name Red Fox Pharmacy for their business, which they expect to open next to Berro\u2019s Pizzeria on August 18.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s from my son. He just loves red foxes. He has a red fox toque and a red fox scarf,\u201d Salehmohamed told Cabin Radio.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really think of red foxes when we think of our son. So it\u2019s kinda-sorta named after him.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a decade in Fort Smith \u2013 a town they have come to love \u2013 Salehmohamed and McAllister see opening an independent pharmacy as professional growth, an expression of their dedication to the community, and a means of providing continuity of care.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe hit that point where we loved living in Fort Smith and we were like, \u2018We\u2019re going stay here long term.\u2019 And it had always been a dream of mine to own my own pharmacy,\u201d said Salehmohamed, who was the managing pharmacist at Wally\u2019s Drugs for the past nine years.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo since we made that decision that we were going to stay, why not do it?\u201d<\/p>\n

McAllister points to the town\u2019s reliance on locum doctors as a reason to put down roots and offer a pharmacy where the staff know every patient.<\/p>\n

Locums are doctors who come from elsewhere to fill in for short periods, rather than moving to a community and staying there. They are a necessary part of the NWT\u2019s healthcare system, which does not have enough resident doctors.<\/p>\n

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\u201cDon\u2019t get me wrong, we\u2019ve got great locum doctors, but there\u2019s still that change in care,\u201d McAllister said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRafiq\u2019s been the pharmacist here for almost a decade, so he\u2019s seen people\u2019s journeys. He knows what they\u2019ve gone through and what they need. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think having that continuity of care is really important, and I think we really feel it as members of the community, that frustration when you don\u2019t have that care. So we want to be a stable part of the community and be able to provide services.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018A billion cameras pointed at us\u2019<\/p>\n

Renovations in the unit that will house the pharmacy are well under way \u2013 and the building is changing at the same time as the rules for pharmacists are changing.<\/p>\n

The NWT government has been updating legislation and introducing regulations<\/a> that are intended to increase the range of services pharmacists can offer.<\/p>\n

Salehmohamed expects the changes to allow pharmacists to initiate and renew prescriptions (rather than simply dispensing prescriptions once patients have received them from a doctor), as well as offer vaccinations.<\/p>\n

He is looking forward to offering appointment-based consultations, which is why the Red Fox unit has a dedicated, private consulting room.<\/p>\n

Offering vaccinations \u201cis a really big one that we\u2019re excited to be able to do,\u201d he said, \u201cand we\u2019ll be able to help a lot with offloading workload.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Unusually, the couple had the opportunity to road-test their elevator pitch about the new pharmacy to two special guests earlier this week.<\/p>\n

They were among the families in the room when Prime Minister Mark Carney and Premier RJ Simpson visited Fort Smith\u2019s community centre<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Carney and Simpson sat down with the family for a couple of minutes.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe family meets Prime Minister Mark Carney and Premier RJ Simpson. Ollie Williams\/Cabin Radio<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first I was like, \u2018Oh God, this is going to be awkward. There are a billion cameras pointed at us and I don\u2019t know what to say to this man,\u2019 but he luckily really steered the conversation,\u201d McAllister said of the prime minister. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe asked how our summer is going, so we brought up that we\u2019re opening a pharmacy. They were talking about how new businesses are what we need, and we couldn\u2019t agree more that that\u2019s what\u2019s good for our communities, to have small, locally owned businesses and more entrepreneurs.\u201d<\/p>\n

McAllister said seeing Red Fox \u201cfinally becoming a reality is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love being here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s where we decided to raise our kids, and we just want to be able to provide the best healthcare service possible to the people who live here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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