Staffing issues need to be addressed

PHARMACY owners and managers are being urged to protect their staff as the profession braces for the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the weeks and months ahead.

Speaking at the opening session of the Australian Pharmacy Professional (APP) Online Conference, former Pharmacy Guild of Australia National President, Kos Sclavos, emphasised the need to protect and profile staff to tackle potential issues from stress to managing potential school closures.

Sclavos said the advice from pharmacists in countries dealing with severe COVID-19 outbreaks has been to “profile all your staff now”, to ensure they are aware of risks and threats to pharmacies during the pandemic.

“Establish what happens for example if the schools close, what is their availability,” he said.

“For university students, if classes are moving or suspended , are they available to do additional hours?

“Make sure you know all these facts up front - we will be under stress in terms of capacity in pharmacy.”

He added there was a need to look after pharmacy staff from a physical and mental health perspective.

“We need to protect our staff,” he said.

“The staff are being abused... this is a long-haul and the stress they’re going to be under will impact them.”

Also speaking at APP Online,

Guild Queensland Branch Director, Gerard Benedet, said the profession needed to “bring people back” who had left pharmacy to pursue careers elsewhere or gone into roles across the profession.

Guild Vice President, Trent Twomey, called on all registered pharmacists to support efforts to increase capacity in the sector. “We need you,” he said.

“It’s not just in regional, rural and remote areas.”