Pharmacy Daily | Push to extend intern’s vax status

REPRESENTATIVES of pharmacy organisations are united in calling on the Victorian Government to implement legislation authorising trained pharmacy students and interns to administer vaccines on a permanent basis.

With Public Health Emergency Orders (PHEOs) allowing Victorian student and intern immunisers to administer COVID-19 and influenza vaccines set to expire in the coming months, representatives of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia and the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) are urging newly appointed State Health Minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, to retain their vaccination services indefinitely.

Guild Victorian Branch President, Anthony Tassone, told Pharmacy Daily that changes to the legislation, rather than an extension of the PHEOs, would strengthen the profession's workforce.

"The Guild believes that rather than having temporary emergency orders extended, it should be made permanent, and be part of the ongoing framework of our primary healthcare system to further bolster our immuniser workforce," he said.

"It will be something we will raise with the newly appointed Victorian Health Minister, when we have the opportunity to meet, along with a review of the overall scope of vaccines Victorian pharmacist immunisers can administer along with the age of patients they can give them to."

PSA Victorian Branch Manager, Jarrod McMaugh, also backed the implementation of legislation authorising appropriately trained pharmacy students and interns to continue administering vaccines beyond the expiry dates of the current PHEOs.

McMaugh also called for changes to pharmacist immuniser training requirements in Victoria.

"Currently, if you're training was conducted outside of Victoria it's not recognised," he said.

"Any nationally recognised vaccination training program should be recognised in Victoria."

He said that such changes would ensure the State's immunisation workforce is "used more effectively".

McMaugh added that pharmacist immunisers should be authorised to administer a full range of vaccines, with funding made available to pay for the administration of National Immunisation Program shots, as well as covering the vaccines.