Doctors have condemned NSW Labor’s proposal to extend pharmacist vaccination scope
“Access to poor quality care is really not access to care at all,” AMA spokesman Kean Seng Lim told 7 News Sydney following Labor’s announcement of the proposal this week.
“It’s not just a needle. It’s actually about having your other health checked as well.”
Doctors also took to social media to condemn the proposal, which would see any future Labor NSW Government allow NSW pharmacies to provide vaccinations for the dTpa vaccine (diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough) and the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps and rubella) from September 1, 2019.
This is the sort of silliness that occurs when healthcare is nonsensically deconstructed by special interest groups. Good healthcare needs good systems, not increased access to partialist solutions which fragment care. Australia deserves better https://t.co/p64DnK1jbw
— Kean Seng Lim (@KeansenglimLim) July 22, 2018
One doctor expressed concern about continuity of care for children if the proposal were to be implemented.
The proposal would only permit accredited pharmacists to administer the wider range of vaccines for people aged 18 to 64.
Truth @KeansenglimLim.
The childhood vaccination program in the Blue Book doubles as regular surveillance for growth, development and at-risk children. Will this reduce GP checks for kids?
Improving vaccination rates needs to go hand in hand with sound public health policy. pic.twitter.com/7lUQ3uMNi3
— Brian Fernandes (@BrianFern_) July 22, 2018
A familiar face stepped in to criticise the proposal, while another expressed disappointment at the doctors’ comments.
Here is the Pharmacy Guild rephrasing a profit drive as an "improvement in public health" @AMA_NSW @RACGP Raising issues related to fragmentation of care, loss of preventive health surveillance is not arrogance or unwillingness to collaborate- its maintaining standards. https://t.co/KO0d3np5Zl
— Evan Ackermann (@ackermann_evan) July 22, 2018
But in announcing the Labor policy, opposition leader Luke Foley pre-empted the doctors’ comments.
“I won’t have the AMA talk down our qualified pharmacists,” he said.
