Allow pharmacists to also give the vaccine jabs
Published on: Sunday, January 17, 2021
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Credit: imunews.imu.edu.my
With roughly 5,000 community pharmacists serving the nation as frontliners in disease prevention, MPS urge the authorities to seriously consider administering the Covid-19 vaccine to all of them. Community pharmacists deal with members of the public, both healthy and ill, every day and are at high risk of contracting Covid-19; consequently, there is a risk that they would then spread the disease to the people they serve.
With community pharmacists properly vaccinated, the public can consult us with confidence. Community pharmacy services are recognised as an essential service under the movement control order.
MPS would also like the authorities to consider community pharmacists as immunisers who can administer Covid-19 vaccines to the public. According to International Pharmaceutical Federation data from 2020, in at least 86 countries, pharmacies play a role in vaccination advocacy, awareness and advice; and in at least 36 countries, they play an active role in administering vaccinations; this latter role has been proposed or is undergoing development in a further 16 countries.
One of the key levers for increasing vaccination rates across people’s lives is to increase convenience of access, and it is easy to see the significant role community pharmacists can play in this.
In view of the current pandemic and in preparation for future pandemics, it is imperative that community pharmacists expand their vaccination pathways to achieve high vaccination coverage and collective immunity as quickly as possible.
Also, to ensure access equity and that the public gains the full health and economic benefits from vaccination, it is an ethical and national health imperative to expand vaccination strategies through the diversification of vaccination pathways involving community pharmacists.
MPS calls on all stakeholders to:
- Recognise and fully harness the convenience of community pharmacies for public health, primary healthcare and disease prevention strategies, including vaccination.
- Foster the full integration of community pharmacies in our healthcare system by creating regulatory and operational conditions for interprofessional collaboration, including access to shared patient health records and vaccination records.
- Expand the regulatory scope of practice of appropriately trained and certified pharmacists to authorise them to administer a broad range of vaccines beyond infancy.
- Promote the competence of pharmacists in vaccine administration by including the required knowledge and skills as an integral part of pharmacists’ foundational education and training, and/or through continuing professional development opportunities.
- Invest in prevention strategies, including vaccination services, by all healthcare providers, including pharmacists, to ensure equity in access to vaccinations and the sustainability of the service.
- Ensure health system readiness for mass immunisation against Covid-19 and any future pandemics as soon as vaccines are available.
- Include community pharmacists in emergency preparedness and response plans as frontline healthcare workers.
The inclusion of community pharmacists as vaccine immunisers among Malaysia’s population of 32 million people and millions of foreign workers and undocumented workers would be an incredibly significant move to achieve herd immunity for Covid-19. The country needs the help of all healthcare workers to carry out this massive national vaccination programme.
Amrahi Buang
President,
Malaysian Pharmacists Society
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