Pharmacy split on COVID testing role

PHARMACY leaders are divided on the merits of the Queensland Government’s decision to launch a pharmacy-based COVID-19 testing trial (PD 12 Aug).

Pharmaceutical Society of Australian (PSA) National President, Dr Chris Freeman, has warned the proposed trial sends out “the wrong message” to patients, while Pharmacy Guild of Australia Queensland Branch Director, Gerard Benedet, said it would facilitate opportunistic testing.

“We have continually asked members of the community not to enter a pharmacy if they are unwell and displaying COVID-19 symptoms,” he said.

“The concern is that this decision will put not only pharmacists at risk but those with chronic health conditions who regularly visit a pharmacy and are at higher risk of contracting COVID-19.

“The Queensland Government did not consult broadly with pharmacists and pharmacy groups and we do not want people who potentially have COVID-19 wandering into a pharmacy to get tested.”

Freeman added that while pharmacists have the skills to triage and screen patients, “there are a raft of problems to work through before this service could be safely offered to patients”.

“It is essential that there is effective infection control and personal protective equipment available for healthcare workers running this service, and guidance similar to that which exists for GP respiratory clinics conducting COVID-19 testing would need to be adopted,” he said.

“Pharmacists and pharmacy staff must be protected... or it places their communities’ ongoing access to medicines and expert pharmacist care at risk.”

However, responding to Freeman’s comments Benedet told Queensland Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, and Health Minister, Steven Miles, that the trial “send the right message”, in a Twitter post published last night.

“If you walk in and ask for cold and flu medicine it makes sense to offer a test given the symptoms are similar.”

Speaking with Pharmacy Daily after a meeting with Queensland Health, Guild Queensland Branch President, Trent Twomey, said the State’s trial would draw on the protocols used in the South Australian pilot (PD 20 Jul).

Twomey said that while the SA trial had focused on five pharmacies, the Queensland program would be open to all QCPP accredited pharmacies in the state, but stressed it would not be compulsory.

He added the trial would not necessarily see pharmacists conducting tests in-store.

“They’ll let us do things like car park testing, rather than having people in store,” he said.