Pharmacy Daily | Queensland joins push for NIP access

PHARMACISTS in Queensland are falling behind their peers in other states and territories in terms of access to vaccinations, Pharmacy Guild of Australia National Vice President, Trent Twomey, believes.

Twomey, who is also the Guild Queensland Branch President, has called on the State Government to follow Victoria's lead in allowing pharmacists to administer vaccinations under the National Immunisation Program (NIP).

In a statement issued yesterday afternoon, Twomey said pharmacists could help reduce preventable hospitalisations in the state if they were empowered to work to their full scope of practice.

Twomey highlighted data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, noting there were more than 179,000 preventable hospitalisations in Queensland in 2017/18.

"A significant proportion of these potentially preventable hospitalisations are due to influenza," he said.

"We know that one-in-four people who are hospitalised with the flu have no underlying medical condition.

"Last year, trained Queensland community pharmacists administered over 200,000 flu vaccinations, helping to build 'community immunity' against the flu through vaccination.

"However, Queensland is falling behind other states in terms of access for vaccinations.

"I call on the Queensland Government to provide community pharmacist's access to the NIP and lower the age of pharmacist vaccination to 10, in line with other jurisdictions, including a recent announcement in South Australia.

"Community pharmacies are highly accessible in terms of their opening hours and locations and provide support across a range of other potentially preventable hospitalisations including patients suffering from asthma, diabetes, COPD and nutritional deficiencies."

Twomey said Queensland could reap savings by approving pharmacist prescribing, with a planned trial in the state.

"Alarmingly, over 20,000 potentially preventable hospitalisations due to urinary tract infections were recorded during this reporting period (2017/18)," he said.

"The quickest way to take pressure off patients and hospitals, is to allow pharmacists to work to their full potential.

"For example, instead of having to wait for hours at an emergency department for antibiotics, that they may have had before, to treat a urinary tract infection -- a patient could be prescribed medication by a pharmacist immediately.

"Excessive wait times and high costs of local GPs have long been a barrier when it comes to Queenslanders accessing health services."

Twomey's call for Queensland pharmacists to be allowed to access the NIP, follows a similar push in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), where the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia has sought approval for pharmacists to provide vaccinations under the program in a pre-Budget submission (PD 19 Nov).