As NSW continues to struggle with the recent outbreak of Covid-19 and with the lockdown extended, the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) has renewed its calls to allow more pharmacists in the state to vaccinate.
This comes as NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on 8 July that NSW cannot live with the Delta variant unless a certain proportion of the population are vaccinated.
PSA NSW Branch President, Chelsea Felkai says there is no explanation from the NSW Government as to why pharmacist involvement in the rollout is still incredibly limited.
“Last week, Premier Berejiklian announced that only 22 community pharmacies across the state will commence vaccinating patients with the AstraZeneca vaccine from mid-July.
“We have almost 5000 skilled, trusted and experienced pharmacist vaccinators across NSW, and the Government has refused to tell us why they are not being utilised,” says Ms Felkai.
“At a time when we are also encouraging NSW residents to stay local, local pharmacists are the obvious choice.
“Pharmacist vaccinators could also be much more widely utilised in vaccination hubs, aged care, and other settings.
“Our nursing colleagues have been doing a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of workforce surge, and we don’t want to see them burn out.
“We need to utilise our full vaccinator workforce, including local pharmacists,” she says.
The Federal Government’s indemnity scheme already covers pharmacists administering Covid-19 and PSA is dedicated to supporting pharmacists in delivering the Covid-19 vaccine both safely and effectively to the public, and pharmacists are on standby to support the strategy.
