Chemists buckling under pressure of Covid
Australian chemists have revealed the extent of their struggles as they grapple with a shortage of RAT tests and vaccines and high staff absentee rates.
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Chemists are collapsing under the pressure of dealing with 100 calls an hour from people trying to find Covid rapid antigen tests and they can’t source either the tests or the Covid vaccines they need to carry out the booster rollout.
More than nine in 10 chemists surveyed by Professional Pharmacists Australia say they can’t get hold of the rapid antigen tests they need to order to meet demand.
Chemist Warehouse chief Mario Tascone has told News Corp it takes three to four weeks after ordering the tests for them to arrive in chemist shops.
His company received a shipment of 200,000 tests on the weekend but he said they were gone within the first five minutes of shops opening on Monday.
A survey of chemists by Professional Pharmacists Australia has found in addition to the 94 per cent of chemists having problems sourcing RATs, a third of the 400-plus respondents were struggling to obtain enough vaccines to meet demand.
The survey also found that 79 per cent of pharmacists believed their workplace was not adequately staffed to deal with the additional demands being placed on it, with many citing high employee absentee rates due to Covid-19 infection or isolation requirements.
Almost 50 per cent claimed their workplace did not have adequate health and safety measures in place to keep employees and the community safe, with 25 per cent of pharmacists having to buy their own PPE for work.
“This situation is beyond dire. Pharmacists are telling us they are extremely overworked and under significant pressure and that they do not have the supplies and equipment they need to do their jobs properly,” Professionals Australia CEO Jill McCabe said.
“One pharmacist said they were only able to access 100 doses of the children’s vaccine every fortnight, despite being the only pharmacy in a district servicing several schools.
“Others spoke of the mounting pressure they were under, including one pharmacist who said there were not enough staff to handle ‘100 phone calls an hour asking for RATs whilst doing 80 vaccinations a day on top of the regular workload of a 400+/day script pharmacy’.”
The Therapeutics Goods Administration (TGA) last week, paved the way for pharmacists to conduct point-of-care Covid tests in pharmacies.
Dr Geoff March, President of Professional Pharmacists Australia, urged the policy be put on hold because it would add to the already heavy workload of chemists and could put them at risk of infection.
“Providing point-of-care testing in pharmacies would have serious implications for both staff and the general public given that pharmacies have such a key role administering vaccinations as well as providing other health services,” he said.
Originally published as Chemists buckling under pressure of Covid
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