REGIONAL NSW-based pharmacist, Paul Smith, is calling on Sydney GPs issuing prescriptions to patients to be dispensed outside of lockdown areas to ask more questions, to discourage people from breaching COVID-19 restrictions.
The Capital Chemist Huskisson Managing Partner, raised concerns after two men from the locked-down Liverpool area of Sydney sought to have scripts filled at the pharmacy.
Smith told Pharmacy Daily that the pair had claimed to have been staying at a caravan park in the area since before lockdown orders were imposed on Sydney, but a call to the park owner confirmed she had no record of them being there.
While frustrated at being lied to by the Sydneysiders, Smith said it was equally annoying that their GP had faxed through scripts without asking how long they had been away from home.
"Her message on hold was if you've been to a lockdown area within the last two week do not come into the surgery," he said.
"Yet she faxed the scripts out without asking any questions."
Smith noted that pharmacists had been called out in a recent NSW Health press conference for "letting" sick patients come into their stores, but "you never hear any mention of GPs such as the one that I came across - who probably charged a long consult fee just to fax some scripts out and didn't ask any questions at all".
While Huskisson has not been subjected to lockdown orders, Smith said the local community was weary of the consequences of people from hotspots bringing the virus into the area.
"We've had three scares here already with people with COVID that have come through... and the businesses lose a lot of money every time," he said.
"If we did have a confirmed case again, I think after the bushfires and everything, that would be the end of most businesses."
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