TECHNICAL difficulties experienced by consumers attempting to use the Pharmacy Guild of Australia's findapharmacy.com.au site to identify local stores participating in the free concession cardholder COVID-19 rapid antigen test program have been resolved, a spokesperson says.
Responding to reports that the website crashed or failed to load throughout the first day of the Federal Government's scheme, the spokesperson told Pharmacy Daily that there had been some "minor difficulties" with the site.
"The demand yesterday was unprecedented, and while the system held up, there were a few understandable glitches given the load and timeframe of the launch," the spokesperson said.
"In the main the majority of customers who used the site found it useful in sourcing RATs.
"Our focus is on ensuring patients are able to access this information and therefore we will continue to monitor the site and have already scheduled upgrades based on yesterday's experience for later in the week".
Speaking during an update webinar last week, Guild National President, Trent Twomey, had highlighted the importance of the site, and noted that the organisation had invested in boosting capacity ahead of the RAT program.
"We will be adding extra functionality to this website so it is not just the single source of truth for accessing COVID-19 vaccinations, but it will also be the single source of truth nationally that everyone can use for access to the concessional RAT program," he said.
"We have thrown a lot of resources at this website to ensure that load is there, so it can handle the increased volumes [of users]."
While the site will initially allow pharmacies to list that they are participating in the scheme and enable them to adjust settings twice daily to indicate that they have stock, Twomey said the Guild was also planning to extend its functionality so that stores can indicate that they have RATs available for private sale, at a later date.
Twomey added that the site was an important tool for pharmacies to use to let consumers know about the availability of RATs.
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