Pharmacy Daily | Pharmacy COVID-19 testing ‘worrying’

QUEENSLAND'S planned pharmacy-based COVID-19 testing trial "makes no sense at all", Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) National Vice President, Dr Bruce Willett believes.

Speaking with the RACGP's NewsGP publication, Willett said the proposed program, which is set to involve five pharmacies in Queensland Health's Cairns, Townsville, West Moreton and Metro North health regions (PD 01 Feb), was a threat to public safety.

"You're asking people who are potentially infected to walk through crowded shopping areas and have their tests in a retail space," he said.

"Obviously there is some benefit to the pharmacist in that they're hoping people will buy things as they walk past the shelves on the way in and out.

"But from a public health point of view, it's certainly not worth it."

Willett added that there was little appetite amongst pharmacists to conduct COVID-19 testing in store.

"The majority of pharmacists that I've talked to - in fact, all the pharmacists that I've talked to who aren't pharmacy owners - are against this and not keen for this to happen at all," Willett said.

"This seems to be an initiative at the behest of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, who represent only pharmacy owners, [and] see this as a business opportunity while transmission is low.

"But, of course we've seen with outbreaks in the Northern Beaches [area of Sydney], Queensland and Melbourne that that can change in a heartbeat.

"So it does still have the risk of bringing COVID carriers into busy retail spaces, and that is a concern."

A Queensland Health spokesperson told the RACGP that it has been working with the five participating pharmacies to adapt the service model to their workflows.

"This is to ensure that the service is conducted in a way that maximises staff and patient safety without disrupting the pharmacy's service delivery," the spokesperson said.

"Pharmacies will not commence offering the service until all the pilot requirements are met."