NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner supports pharmacists delivering specific vaccines provided they are properly trained. Photo: Dean Osland
The NSW Health Minister has committed to allowing pharmacists to deliver vaccines, in a speech that has triggered a war of words between doctors and pharmacists.
Pharmacists say the decision to allow them to provide the flu vaccine is only the first step, and are pushing for the decision to be extended to cover all routine immunisation – outraging the state’s doctors who say it would put children at risk.
On Tuesday the NSW Branch of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia announced Health Minister Jillian Skinner had told them she would support their push to deliver immunisations in pharmacies.
Mrs Skinner told Fairfax Media she only supported allowing them to deliver specific vaccines such as the flu vaccine, provided they were adequately trained.
“This service could only be provided by registered pharmacists who have met national competency standards to provide a vaccination service, including training on administration of vaccines and the management of reactions to vaccination such as fainting or, on rare occasions, anaphylaxis,” she said.
Discussions between the pharmacists and NSW Health have been going on for months, but have been stuck on how much training should be required, and Mrs Skinner confirmed a roll-out date had not yet been decided on.
Steven Drew, the NSW branch director of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, said a trial of pharmacist-delivered vaccines in Queensland had successfully immunised 11,000 people and had now been expanded to include the measles and whooping cough vaccines.
Pharmacists received a two-day face-to-face and online training course, which, he said, was comprehensive.
“Pharmacists study for a minimum of four years, they are not dummies… there is nothing about doctors that makes them better placed [to immunise people],” he said.
“You can walk into a pharmacy and get it done in about half an hour – we are talking about a level of convenience and accessibility that is unparalleled”.
He said doctors had been involved in a “scare campaign” about pharmacist immunisation that was part of a turf war.
The head of the NSW Australian Medical Association, Saxon Smith, said doctors would “fight tooth and nail” any move to extend pharmacist vaccines to children.
“When you are talking about the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine you are talking about children, or about people with complex medical conditions that need to be managed in a GP setting,” he said. “It’s also important because in children there is a greater risk of adverse reactions”.
“Is two days training adequate to be able to deal with serious adverse reactions? I don’t think so.”
He said even delivering flu vaccines in pharmacies also had the potential to cause problems, although he acknowledged there was little doctors could do if the Minister had made her mind up.
“These are the exact patients who you would want to interact with a GP to ensure they get a yearly check-up,” he said. “Immunisation is about more than just a needle.”