By Suzanne Greenwood, Executive Director
The Christmas-New Year holiday period is traditionally the busiest for community pharmacies across the country, but this season has been exceptional, with community pharmacists and their staff run off their feet with demand for COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters, and rapid antigen tests.
This demand, of course, came on top of their usual business and the added demands of holidaymakers.
The pressure on pharmacies was intensified by various changes to COVID-19 regimens which saw patients flock to pharmacies for advice and product – product which often was unavailable.
As we entered the holiday period, the time period after which you could receive a booster shot was reduced to five months from six months, a change which overnight saw an additional three million people become eligible for their booster shots. The problem was there was no warning given about the change so not surprisingly pharmacies were caught short on stock as this announcement did not align with stock ordering availability.
Emergency stock deliveries were organised as pharmacies recalibrated to meet the demand.
In the midst of scrambling to get stock and vaccinate increased numbers of patients, the Government announced further cuts to the delay in getting a booster to four months and then three months – but this time notice was given as these changes were not immediate. The four-month delay came into effect on 4 January and the three-month delay cuts in on 31 January, giving pharmacies time to place stock orders.
With pharmacies meeting the renewed demand, a milestone was reached at Christmas with community pharmacies across Australia topping the three million mark for the number of Moderna, AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines they had administered.
What makes this especially significant is the fact that community pharmacies were not brought into the vaccination rollout until late July. I can only imagine how many more people may have been vaccinated through pharmacies had the sector been brought into the rollout earlier, as we advocated.
The three million mark was followed by another significant achievement just before New Year’s Eve with community pharmacies across Australia delivering more COVID-19 vaccinations in one day than any other access point. On 29 December, pharmacies administered 61,048 vaccines compared with 58,533 doses from other Commonwealth sites, and 29,393 from State and Territory hubs.
This even prompted comment from the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, who said: “Now during the earlier waves, I think it was around that five per cent that were done by pharmacies. And now we're seeing that at roughly up about 20 per cent. So the pharmacies kick in has been really important in lifting, I think those rates and particularly for boosters and we'll see those rates lift, and I am sure we will see Australians respond to this challenge just as they have on the first two doses and they're already doing it more quickly than they did on the first few doses.”
Meeting increased demands from changes in the booster protocols was not the only challenge for pharmacists.
The surge of the omicron variant of the virus saw a consumer rush for rapid antigen tests which quickly became the new ‘must have’ for most people, resulting in enormous pressure on pharmacies.
Again, the extent of the demand, like that for booster shots, caused supplies to quickly dwindle. Pharmacies reported frustrated and disappointed customers who could not find the tests anywhere and television news reports showed vision of pharmacy phones ringing non-stop as people tried to source rapid antigen tests.
If this wasn’t enough, the change to entry requirements into Queensland from a PCR test to rapid antigen tests just added to the problem as holidaymakers with Queensland bookings scrambled to find the product so they could enter Queensland.
While emergency supplies were ordered and have started arriving, all these factors added to a perfect storm of non-stop pressure on pharmacists and their staff.
And throughout it all they continued their business-as-usual activities of dispensing, providing advice and counselling, and looking after the health needs of their patients.
I have highlighted these factors to show just how hard pharmacists and pharmacy staff were working while many of us relaxed. After a tough year they were already tired, but now many must be feeling exhausted.
It’s up to all of us next time we are in a pharmacy to show them we appreciate what they have done; and continue to do as community pharmacy leads us out of this pandemic.
