Pharmacy Daily | Recognise pharmacists!

PHARMACY Guild Executive Director Suzanne Greenwood has reiterated the importance of pharmacists and pharmacy staff being recognised as front line responders to emergencies and disasters in Australia.

Writing in the Guild's Forefront newsletter yesterday, Greenwood provided further details of a submission to the Senate Inquiry into the Australian Government's response to COVID-19 (PD 29 Apr), which "gives the opportunity to put this pandemic into the context of a coordinated and collaborative response to emergencies".

Recommendations include that community pharmacists be formally recognised to be involved in national emergency and disaster planning and preparedness, and response and recovery measures.

Greenwood (pictured) noted the key role pharmacies had played in the challenges of this year, including bushfires, storms and COVID-19, describing the "amazing and often awe-inspiring lengths gone to by pharmacists and their staff to help patients and communities in these times".

She suggested that to help prepare for future emergencies, community pharmacies can provide real-time information on the ground and in their communities to help decision-makers effectively plan responses, including details such as medicine supply, logistical requirements and the availability of personal protective equipment.

In the current pandemic there are some 80,000 people working on the front line in community pharmacies, she noted, ensuring continued access to medicines and essential primary care health services and medicine management programs.

"But the lack of recognition means they have not received the support or protection of other primary care workers leaving them, at times, exposed, abused, overwhelmed with workload and workflow changes, and feeling undervalued as a part of the health system, with little recognition that they are health care workers."

The Guild's submission also focuses on measures to ensure business continuity and the ongoing viability of community pharmacies during and after a crisis.

"The commitment to patient wellbeing can only be realised by businesses that are operating and are confident of their ability to continue operating," she concluded.