CLAIMS that expanding the range of locations where pharmacists can administer influenza vaccinations would be a "recipe for disaster" (PD yesterday), are "alarming", consultant pharmacist, Karalyn Huxhagen, says.
Responding to the comments surrounding the Victorian State Government's decision to allow pharmacist immunisers to provide flu vaccines to patients in aged care facilities and workplaces, made by Royal Australian College of General Practitioners President, Dr Harry Nespolon, the Queensland pharmacist said the GP was out of step with the drive to boost vaccination uptake.
"It's just alarming that in this time of crisis, where every health minister and every national health person, like [Chief Medical Officer] Professor Brendan Murphy, is getting up and saying, 'please go out and get your influenza vaccine as soon as you possibly can' [Nespolon says this]," Huxhagen said.
"Pharmacies are going flat-out delivering as much as we can - I did a 12-hour shift yesterday providing vaccinations.
"It's just weird that this guy is saying that expanding where we can do it is wrong.
"Nowhere in the legislation does it talk about location as being a barrier.
"In any under developed country these things are happening in tents.
"When we send our young interns and pharmacists into these countries they're doing it on the edge of roads.
"As long as the equipment and the process is followed correctly, location is not a problem."
Huxhagen added that research had highlighted the need for vaccination services to be available in more locations to boost uptake.
"You can't keep restricting it to just being at medical practices or opportunistically when patients come to some kind of health destination," she said.
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