Pharmacy Daily | GP clinics safest for COVID vaccine

GENERAL Practitioners should be front and centre in plans to rollout successful COVID-19 vaccines, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Acting President, Associate Professor Ayman Shenouda, believes.

Highlighting a paper published in the Australian Journal of General Practice, Shenouda said GPs needed to be engaged at an early stage in any COVID vaccination program.

"We should not wait until the day after a vaccine becomes available to consider the role of general practice," he said.

"Past mass vaccination programs have demonstrated that planning for vaccine rollout and community engagement needs to start beforehand.

"So in order to optimise confidence and uptake, GPs must be properly consulted and significantly involved from start to finish.

"That includes our work in educating patients and carers about the vaccine, administering it, recording uptake and reporting any adverse events.

"This paper refers to studies from the H1N1 pandemic, which showed that GPs were highly influential in encouraging vaccine uptake.

"The stakes are even higher this time, so we must get this right.

"As the authors state, GPs will need up-to-date information about the vaccine and be engaged in pre-vaccination planning to counteract anti-vaxxer campaigning and address patient doubts about mass vaccination policies."

When contacted by Pharmacy Daily about the role of pharmacists in delivering the pandemic vaccine, and RACGP spokesperson said, "The RACGP's view is that general practice is the safest place to deliver a COVID-19 vaccination".

"GPs draw on a comprehensive patient history and are equipped with the training and facilities to respond promptly in the rare case that a patient responds adversely to a vaccination," the spokesperson said.

"General practice is also connected to the Australian Immunisation Register to ensure accurate record keeping of vaccine administration."

Shenouda also called for public health campaigns to be rolled out outlining the benefits and success of vaccinations to promote uptake of the vaccines when they become available.