PHARMACY'S peak bodies need to advocate for pharmacists to be empowered to take on critical roles in disasters, research reveals.
Data published by Plos One on Boxing Day, found the 15-person panel of disaster health and pharmacy experts believed pharmacists could take on 43 key roles to integrate within disaster management teams.
The study found pharmacists were capable of undertaking 21 roles in the response phase of a disaster, including triaging low-acuity patients, providing one-off emergency supply refills for up to 30 days during the declared disaster, prescribing and administering vaccinations, deciding on the appropriateness of donated medicines and other supplies, and maintaining media liaison on medications issues.
The expert panel also supported pharmacists engaging the pharmacy student workforce to backfill duties, including dispensing and inventory, to free up pharmacists to perform more clinical roles in a crisis situation.
In the recovery phase of a disaster the expert group agreed on eight roles including identifying and prioritising vulnerable patients in the community, restoring order to patient and drug records in the event that power outages forced health workers to create written records, documenting what worked and didn't work in the disaster response, and participating in post-disaster research.
"This study provides evidence to policymakers on the acknowledgment by international key opinion leaders in the disaster health community of the accepted roles pharmacists are capable of undertaking in disasters," the authors said.
"However, it is up to the pharmacy profession to instigate the capability of these pharmacists' roles through training for specialist roles and expanding pharmacy operational environments.
"It is up to the pharmacy professional bodies to take a disaster pharmacy proposal to the government about how more extensive involvement of pharmacists in communities and on deployment could be achieved."
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