In the face of a sudden cut in the COVID booster wait from six months to five late last year, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia is continuing to urge strong action to smooth out supply and demand for the doses.
National President Professor Trent Twomey and fellow Guild leaders embarked on a round of media interviews just before Christmas to address fallout from surging demand.
The announcement of a cut from six to five months between second and booster doses added overnight an extra three million Australians to those eligible for their booster dose.
Now the interval has been cut to minimum four months – and there are two more points of acceleration in January: Children aged 5-11 to be eligible for vaccination against COVID from 10 January and a further cut in the booster interval to three months, from 31 January. Unlike the cut from six to five months, the more recent changes have been advised ahead of time to allow for better matching of supply to demand.
As Professor Twomey said, there are pressure points which are very real – but which can be fixed.
The overall vaccine supply in Australia, including stocks of Pfizer and Moderna, is adequate. However the time lag between placing an order and receiving stock can be one week. Professor Twomey pointed out the Australian Government chose not to use the existing taxpayer-supported system - $1.2 billion over five years - to distribute medicines, a system which means stocks can arrive overnight.
Pharmacists have acted on suggestions they approach colleagues to obtain surplus stocks which may be available. However as Professor Twomey explained: “When you are flat out – everyone knows how busy their GP is and how busy their pharmacist is – they don’t have time to get into the van and start dropping stock off to their mate down the road. They are busy looking after the patient standing in front of them.”
The surging demand for doses is also building new demand on community pharmacies and pharmacists. At least half of all community pharmacies are opening for extended hours, that is after 6pm on a weekday or after noon on a weekend day. This accessibility is a reason why the national vaccination rollout accelerated sharply in the second half of 2021 – and is a key to meeting the new demand for booster, child 5-11 years or immunocompromised bookings.
The heightened demand has also been noted on the popular Find a Pharmacy web tool. Although walk-ins continue to be dealt with, bookings minimise the amount of time a patient needs to receive their vaccination – and smooth out what is a constant workload for community pharmacists.
