CLAIMS that allowing pharmacists in Victoria to provide National Immunisation Program (NIP) vaccination services in aged care facilities and workplaces, as of 01 Apr, is a "recipe for disaster" are being dismissed by the Pharmacy Guild of Australia.
In an article published on the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners' (RACGP) newsGP website, the College's President, Dr Harry Nespolon, raised safety concerns saying pharmacists "do not have the medical training required to safely deliver vaccinations and respond to associated risks, such as anaphylaxis, that can very occasionally occur".
Responding to Nespolon's comments, Guild Victorian Branch President, Anthony Tassone, said that with many GP clinics restricting face-to-face patient interactions as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, there was a need to make all immunisers available to administer the influenza vaccine this year.
"I'm not sure if Harry's fax is broken and he didn't receive the memo that there's a global COVID-19 pandemic," he said.
"Nespolon's repeated snipes at our profession are hopelessly out of touch and unhelpful.
"It's very likely that demand for the flu vaccination will exceed supply [this year], and we must do whatever we can to appropriately and safely administer available stock to those patients that seek it.
"It would be a travesty if there was NIP stock sitting in a fridge of a medical centre somewhere that had closed due to practising telehealth, and had not been redistributed to another general practice or a pharmacy for utilisation."
Tassone told Pharmacy Daily that most GPs on the ground were appreciative and supportive of the efforts being made by community pharmacists across the country.
"It's about time the RACGP was actually in tune with the grass roots and what is happening at the local level rather than chasing headlines," he said.
"We all just want to get on with it.
"It's like he [Nespolon] has an autosend on his email for the dial-a-quote have a crack at pharmacy, 'something about pharmacy, we're going to criticise it', having no regard for the context or the circumstances."
Meanwhile, Tassone noted that Victoria was the second state to allow pharmacists to administer vaccines outside of the community pharmacy setting, following Tasmania, adding the ACT's legislation was "silent" on where pharmacist immunisers can vaccinate.
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