Pharmacists key to COVID information

PHARMACISTS need to ensure they are up to date on changes in COVID-19-related restrictions and requirements within their state/ territory, as moves to ease social distancing are implemented.

Speaking during a webinar last night, Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) National President, Dr Chris Freeman, said the pharmacy profession will continue to play a crucial role in disseminating information to the public, to support COVIDSafe measures going forward.

“As frontline health providers we have a critical role in making sure that we provide the community with the correct information when it comes to implementing the reduction in distancing measures as they are rolled out across the country,” he said.

“As has been the case, there are different conditions in different states and territories, and it’s really important that we familiarise ourselves with what our local plan is going to be in terms of that relaxation - it’s not going to be the same across the country at the same point in time.”

He stressed that pharmacists needed to be aware of the public health information in their local area, and reinforce the messages to their patients.

While identifying the need for pharmacists to be on top of the latest information regarding plans to ease restrictions, Freeman said the process was likely to take time, with distancing and other measures designed to mitigate against the spread of the virus likely to remain important going forward.

“This is going to be a slow process and so you’re going to need to start to embed the changes that you’ve made in terms of how you are able to conduct your practice to maintain things like physical distancing in those environments,” he said.