Pharmacists critical to COVID vax

PLANS to implement a large scale COVID-19 vaccination program in Australia can only be achieved if pharmacist immunisers are engaged, Pharmaceutical Society of Australia National President, Dr Chris Freeman, believes.

Yesterday he issued a statement calling on State and Territory Governments to enact harmonised legislation allowing trained pharmacist immunisers, in line with the Federal Government’s commitment in the Seventh Community Pharmacy Agreement (PD Breaking News).

Freeman highlighted the role pharmacists have played in boosting influenza vaccine uptake, while continuing to serve local communities and maintaining frontline Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme medication supplies, to push for the administration of any approved COVID vaccine to be included in pharmacists’ scope of practice.

“The large scale rollout of this vaccine can only be achieved by also utilising pharmacist immunisers conveniently located in the community across Australia,” Freeman said.

“This will be particularly critical in rural and remote areas where there may be a limited number of GPs.”

Freeman’s comments came after the Federal Government announced it had signed an agreement with AstraZeneca to secure 34 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, currently being developed by researchers at the University of Oxford, should it pass safety and efficacy standards, with the first batch of doses due early next year.

The Government has also signed a heads of agreement for CSL to supply 51 million doses of a vaccine being developed by the University of Queensland, with the first tranche of doses expected to be available by mid-2021 should it prove successful.