Pharmacy Daily | Pharmacists’ safety takes backseat

THROUGHOUT the COVID-19 crisis Australian pharmacists' personal health has taken a backseat so they can serve patients when other primary care providers have closed their doors, the Federal Parliament was told yesterday.

Voicing support for the Government's Therapeutic Goods Amendment (2020 Measure No 1) Bill 2020, which aims to address medicines shortages, pharmacist turned Labor MP, Emma McBride, praised the work of pharmacists during the crisis, and called for the introduction of policies designed to boost domestic drug manufacturing to combat supply shortages.

"Pharmacists have made a considerable contribution on the frontlines---staying open and offering critical services when many other primary care providers were closed," she said.

"Sadly, they've also borne the brunt of stressed and frightened people, and that has led to stories of violence against pharmacists and pharmacy staff.

"Pharmacists have worked together with the TGA to implement supply restrictions on medicines.

"Hospital pharmacists are managing supplies so that patients in ICU have access to the essential medicines needed---medicines critical for induction on ventilators and preserving life.

"Aged-care pharmacists provide telehealth consultations to deliver much-needed residential medication management.

"Consultant pharmacists provide home medication reviews via telehealth, to support the safe use of medication in the home.

"For many of our most vulnerable Australians who have been forced into isolation, pharmacists are often the only health-professional contact that those patients have had---be that through the delivery of medication to the home, via telehealth consultations or over the counter in a pharmacy.

"It has been the pharmacist not only providing these services during COVID-19 but encouraging the most vulnerable in the community to reconnect with their local GP or allied health provider when, at times, their own health can take a back seat."