PHARMACY owners in Sydney's COVID-19 hotspots are facing multiple challenges including workforce shortages and a lack of access to government-funded personal protective equipment (PPE), as they commence the rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations.
Pharmacy Guild of Australia NSW Branch President, David Heffernan, told Pharmacy Daily that many pharmacy owners were being forced to put their hands in their pockets to purchase PPE, "despite the taxpayer paying for a stockpile for those hot zones".
"It's not being delivered to pharmacies," he said.
"It's an absolute outrage after all those rivers of gold have been fed into Primary Care Networks that aren't even organised.
"It's a seven-day turnaround to get a handful of masks for 50-odd staff in some cases.
"It's pretty pathetic, but it's another thing we're trying to deal with and trying to fix for other agencies that ought to have it in place especially when they're getting thrown such vast sums of money."
With the vaccination rollout getting underway in a number of pharmacies in Sydney yesterday, Heffernan noted that there was a need to clarify issues around staff in PPE being designated as close contacts in the event that a patient who has been vaccinated in store subsequently is confirmed as having been COVID-positive at the time.
"What's the point of wearing PPE if then NSW Health calls and you are deemed a close contact?" he asked.
"We're facing a potential workforce crisis if some of the red tape isn't removed.
"We've got pharmacies that have shut their doors because they can't afford people to walk in and close the business down.
"Others who have stayed open are finding it hard because their staff are running thin.
"They're small businesses and small businesses don't have a B-team sitting on the shelf ready to deploy in the case of a pandemic."
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