Pharmacy Daily | Appreciated – but others more so

ALL health workers are appreciated in Victoria, but some appear to be more appreciated than others in the eyes of the State Government, a Pharmacy Guild of Australia representative believes.

Despite reassurances from Victorian Health Minister, Jenny Mikakos's office, that testing sites had been told to give priority status to pharmacy employees (PD 06 Aug), Guild Victorian Branch President, Anthony Tassone, told Pharmacy Daily that staff were being told they were not seen as essential workers by testers.

Tassone said he was "sick of waiting" for the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to clearly identify pharmacists as "essential workers" for COVID-19 testing, in line with other key health professions.

"This is in no way a criticism of the hard-working professionals on the front-line of those testing centres," he said.

"They need to be given clear guidance from the DHHS - they need to get on with it."

Tassone flagged an open letter that was issued by Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews, and Minister Mikakos, in a post on Twitter last week, acknowledging the work of nurses, midwives and carers.

In his tweet, Tassone noted the praise was "well deserved", and called for a similar acknowledgement of the efforts of the pharmacy sector to be issued.

"We received a letter of appreciation from a DHHS bureaucrat earlier in the pandemic," he said.

"We chose not to send the letter signed by someone our members wouldn't know, and suggested a letter from the Minister would be more appropriate, but haven't heard anything since."

Tassone suggested that while the efforts of front-line health workers may be appreciated by the State Government, some appeared to be appreciated more than others.

Speaking on ABC News at Noon yesterday, Tassone noted community pharmacy workers were still being impacted by the NSW State Government's decision to close its border with Victoria (PD 27 Jul).

"A really disappointing aspect of the NSW/Victoria border closure at the moment is that hospital pharmacists are actually considered essential workers and have certain exemptions... but pharmacists working in community pharmacies on the front-line in patient-facing roles don't have the same exemption," he said.