PPA pledges to stop COVID-19 testing

PHARMACY union, Professional Pharmacists Australia (PPA), will “do whatever it takes” to stop the rollout of the Queensland State Government’s pharmacy-based COVID-19 testing trial, if safety concerns are not addressed.

Speaking with Pharmacy Daily, PPA Queensland Director, Adam Kerslake, said “people are freaked out” by the proposed testing service, warning the union would use workplace health and safety legislation to protect pharmacy staff.

Kerslake expressed concerns over the lack of communication between the State Government and frontline pharmacists prior to announcing the trial last month (PD 12 Aug), saying Queensland needed to follow similar protocols to the small-scale COVID testing program in South Australia.

“The Government announced this on 12 Aug,” he said.

“They didn’t talk to the people who are going to be doing it - they called us in and said ‘it’s been announced, so it’s going ahead’, but we will not let it go ahead if it’s not safe.

“If our people get infected, get sick and die, we’re not having that.”

Kerslake told The Courier-Mail the idea of having potentially infected patients visit retail environments for testing was “half-baked”, and warned industrial action could be taken to stop the trial.

“It’s a flashpoint, if we don’t act now and run a really strong campaign to stop that, it will be in every pharmacy in the country in a short time and our people will be getting infected,” he said.

Pharmacy Guild of Australia Queensland Branch President, Trent Twomey has previously said the pilot would follow similar protocols to the South Australian trial, with pharmacy testing centres complying with the same clinical guidelines “that every other piece of the primary healthcare infrastructure needs to comply with”.