Pharmacy Daily | Stop hiding behind National Cabinet

COMMONWEALTH Government decision-makers are bungling the rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations and need to activate community pharmacies to be vaccine hubs immediately, Pharmacy Guild of Australia National President, Trent Twomey, says.

Speaking at a media conference yesterday (PD breaking news), Twomey hit out at the "so-called experts... faceless men in the Commonweatlh Government bureaucracy providing goodness knows what advice", while leaving trained immunisers working in community pharmacies on the sidelines of the vaccination effort.

In an impassioned plea, Twomey called on the Morrison Government to add pharmacies to the rollout.

"We have the premiers onboard," he said.

"In Victoria we know that Dan's [Premier Daniel Andrews] back on deck and he's supportive of community pharmacies.

"We know the Premier of South Australia, the Premier of Queensland, the Premier of Tasmania, the Premier of WA... they're all onboard.

"Stop hiding behind National Cabinet and activate community pharmacy."

Twomey noted that there were no delays in onboarding general practices to the scheme, and singled out Commonwealth Department of Health Secretary, Professor Brendan Murphy, for criticism.

"Brendan Murphy needs to step up here," Twomey said.

"He deserves to take responsibility for this bungled rollout.

"Murphy is nowhere to be seen at the moment - he was rolled out by the politicians as the medical expert and everyone heeded his advice, and where is he now?

"He's hiding behind the General [COVID-19 vaccine taskforce leader, Lieutenant-General John Frewen]."

Twomey rejected suggestions that vaccine supply issues were responsible for the stalled rollout of COVID vaccination services through pharmacies.

"We have tens of millions of vaccines sitting in fridges between State and Territory Governments and the Commonwealth Government," he said.

"And we have tens of millions of Australians who want to get their vaccine."

CLICK HERE to see the media conference.