PHARMACY owners who have yet to sign up to administer COVID-19 vaccinations (COVAX) through their stores are being urged to join the national campaign.
Speaking with Pharmacy Daily earlier this week, Pharmacy Guild of Australia National President, Trent Twomey, said the organisation was keen to see the number of pharmacies participating increase beyond the 3,640 currently registered.
"We're in the process of putting the call out to all those pharmacies that have not considered participating in the program yet," he said.
"We'd really love to have 4,000 pharmacies participating by the end of the month."
As of Mon 13 Sep, 3,147 of the 3,640 pharmacies that had registered for the campaign had recorded administering doses to patients through the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR), with close to a third of those stores in NSW alone.
Department of Health figures provided to Pharmacy Daily on Wed evening showed community pharmacies had administered more than 522,400 doses - 59% (307,900) of which were given in NSW.
Meanwhile, Guild Executive Director, Suzanne Greenwood, told the Australian Friendly Societies Pharmacies Association (AFSPA) that the organisation was continuing to advocate for improved remuneration for pharmacies involved in the COVAX rollout.
"We don't believe the remuneration is adequate," she said.
"However, we all need to recognise that there has been a win in that we have for the first time got strong recognition out of the Government to be paying pharmacy directly for a service that it's providing.
"But please be assured that we are not resting on our laurels there, because the remuneration is not what it needs to be."
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 17 Sep 21
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