PHARMACY Guild of Australia leaders are continuing discussions with NSW Health to secure approval for pharmacies to join the State's COVID-19 vaccination (COVAX) rollout.
Guild NSW Branch President, David Heffernan, told Pharmacy Daily that the talks with the State authorities have been focused on "areas of need", where there is limited access to COVAX services, to pave the way for rural pharmacies to participate in the program.
However, he said that extending the vaccination program to include all community pharmacies across the State would help to accelerate immunisation rates and combat vaccine hesitancy.
"We don't see the point of not using the whole vaccination workforce," he said.
"We could have a good story [regarding vaccine uptake] by Christmas, instead of sometime next year [if community pharmacies were given the green-light to administer COVAX]."
Heffernan also flagged concerns over the NSW Government's planned COVAX hub in Belmont, which is expected to employ 25 pharmacists or pharmacy technicians, saying it could lead to staffing issues at community pharmacies in the Hunter region.
"They're trying to take pharmacists out of pharmacies," he said.
Heffernan added that the COVAX hub model also created additional costs for the State that could be avoided by using existing infrastructure, including community pharmacies, to roll out the vaccination program.
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