Pharmacists Given Green Light to Administer Vaccines

[caption id="attachment_5871" align="alignright" width="110"] Grant Kardachi[/caption]

The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia has welcomed the decision by the Pharmacy Board of Australia to recognise the administration of vaccines as part of the scope of practice of Australian pharmacists.

The Pharmacy Board of Australia has announced that it “noted the work undertaken on its behalf by the Advanced Practice Framework Steering Committee and has advised that in its opinion vaccination is within the current scope of practice of a pharmacist. However, further work regarding competence to do so, standards, training and where this may take place will need to be completed before vaccination by a pharmacist will be able to occur.”

The National President of the PSA, Grant Kardachi, said the decision brought Australia into line with international practice and also opened the way for the wider delivery of immunisation services through community pharmacies.
“We have seen already from international experience that consumers see great value in pharmacists providing immunisation services,” Mr Kardachi said. “These services have been shown to fill gaps in coverage and complement those provided by doctors with international studies finding that the people who use pharmacy vaccinations services would otherwise normally not be immunised because they would not go to a doctor or other health professional for a vaccination.
“The overwhelming clinical and scientific evidence is that vaccinations provided through pharmacies are both safe and effective.”
Mr Kardachi said the PSA had issued guidelines for providing immunisation services with a view to promoting best practice and the delivery of high-quality immunisation services in pharmacies and to ensure that no gaps existed in this public health program.
The PSA’s Practice guidelines for the provision of immunisation services within pharmacy provided guidance to pharmacists on professional issues and obligations related to hosting immunisation services within the pharmacy setting.
“These guidelines (available at www.psa.org.au) are very relevant in the context of the current situation,” Mr Kardachi said. “These new guidelines promote specific policies and protocols designed to ensure safe and effective channels of communication between healthcare providers. PSA supports immunisation as a public health program.”
Mr Kardachi also said pharmacists as the medicines experts had sophisticated cold chain protocols in place for testing of storage refrigerators to ensure vaccines were kept appropriately.
“We look forward to working collaboratively with our colleagues in the healthcare team around this important public health initiative to ensure more and more Australians are protected from disease,” Mr Kardachi said.