COVAX rollout hits hospital pharmacy
MOVES to second hospital pharmacists to assist in State and Territory COVID‐19 vaccina on (COVAX) clinics is “placing huge pressure on an already constrained workforce”, the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA) warns.
SHPA CEO, Kris n Michaels, told Pharmacy Daily that hospital pharmacists accounted for close to 23% of the pharmacist workforce in Australia, and were playing an integral role in COVAX hubs.
However, she noted that prior to the start of the COVAX rollout hosp al pharmacies were already short‐staffed, with the majority of Australian hospitals’ pharmacy departments falling short of the staffing ra os specified in SHPA standards, adding that many did not employ any clinical pharmacists.
“This leads to pa ents being discharged from hospital without review and counselling of their medicines by a pharmacist, putting them at risk of readmission,” Michaels said.
“This is caused by both a shortage of pharmacists equipped for hospital posi ons and chronic underfunding for the posi ons themselves.
“The impact is historically worse in rural and regional hospitals, but is now dire across the board as pharmacy departments in metro areas second staff to state‐ run vaccination clinics, without commensurate support.
“The risks are incredibly serious - a misplaced decimal point or an extra zero can result in a life‐ threatening overdose of a high-risk medicine - and these are errors hospital pharmacists prevent from occurring through medica on reconcilia on on admission, management of new medicines and adverse events, therapeutic drug monitoring, daily medica on chart review and discharge counselling.”
Michaels added that there was a need for State and Territory health authori es to allocate appropriate funding for the provision of hospital pharmacy services going forward.
“SHPA will always welcome investment into new and expanded hospitals, but this must ‐ and often doesn’t ‐ come with dedicated funding for the hospital pharmacists required to service new beds and wards,” she said.
“SHPA welcomes these discussions in the context of important na onal medicines policy reform.”