Pharmacies express concern at jabs risk in Covid-19 hotspots

Pharmacies in southwest and western Sydney are worried they are ill-equipped to deal with the risks posed by vaccination in hotspot areas where the virus is rife.

Soriah Lambrousis, 28, receives the AstraZeneca vaccine from pharmacist Nadeem Ahmad in Liverpool in southwest Sydney last week. Picture: John Feder

Pharmacies in southwest and western Sydney are worried they are ill-equipped to deal with the risks posed by vaccination in hotspot areas where the virus is rife, saying a lack of available personal protective equipment and enough ventilated clinical space is putting their workforce at risk.

As community pharmacies are purpose-built retail spaces, with many located in crowded indoor spaces such as shopping centres, pharmacists are worried they are improperly set up for vaccination and may be unable to meet infection prevention and control standards during an outbreak.

More than 90 pharmacies in southwest and western Sydney have been called on to join the vaccination rollout, with millions of doses fast-tracked to the epicentre of the city’s outbreak in a bid to ramp up vaccination rates and immunise the community, thereby slowing the spread of the virus.

As the local community heeds the calls to arms in recent days, pharmacies have been inundated with people booking or walking in to get the jab, raising concern for potential transmission between customers or staff as more people gather in indoor spaces.

While pharmacies have been trying to space out appointments to reduce the foot traffic as a way of mitigating the risk, customers are still required to wait 15 minutes post-vaccination so they can be monitored for adverse reactions.

During this time, pharmacy staff are at risk of contracting the virus, compounded by a lack of ventilation and space to socially distance in smaller pharmacies.

Wetherill Park pharmacist and NSW Pharmacy Guild vice-­president Catherine Bronger said while community pharmacies wanted to do their part in the rollout, inadequate personal protective equipment protocols were in place to protect themselves.

She spoke to The Australian from home after being forced into two weeks of isolation after serving an asymptomatic customer who later tested positive to Covid-19.

“I have supplied all my staff with PPE at enormous cost, and it has been very difficult to obtain,” she said. “I shouldn’t have to pay for it – its costing me a fortune. There’s no way doctors are expected to pay for their own protective equipment.

“Every second day we are getting someone who is asymptomatic coming into the store, and it’s a rotating wheel of staff that have to isolate themselves. It’s like Russian roulette,” she said.

“NSW Health has to put in place commonsense protocols to protect the workforce. We are getting depleted at the moment because anyone who interacts with a customer who turns out to be positive has to sit it out for 14 days.”

Some pharmacies have opted out of the rollout, with the threat of contracting the virus too high and the remuneration available too ­little.