Influenza Vaccinations

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE (14:42): My question is to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing regarding public health. Will the minister allow pharmacists to vaccinate people over 65 years of age using the SA Health supply in order to speed up the rollout of the flu vaccine this year, and what is being done to address significant delays in orders for flu vaccinations at GP clinics and pharmacies across South Australia?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (14:42): The South Australian government regards pharmacies as a critical component of ensuring the health and safety of our community, particularly in difficult times such as we are experiencing in the current COVID-19 pandemic. It is very important for us that we maintain the operation of the clinics, and our awareness of this risk was heightened only in the last week when two South Australian pharmacies were impacted with staff members testing positive for COVID-19.

SA Health staff supported those pharmacies to respond to these challenges in a timely and efficient manner, and I understand that the Pharmacy Guild did likewise. The Chief Pharmacist in South Australia is coordinating regular meetings with South Australian representatives of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia and the Pharmaceutical Registration Authority of South Australia. These are designed to coordinate the COVID-19 response.

These meetings have ensured the sector is up to date with medicines, legislation and policy changes and to ensure, importantly, that feedback and advice from the community pharmacy is available and considered. These meetings are a collaborative forum, and there are ongoing discussions about the role that community pharmacy can play in responding to the pandemic.

In terms of the honourable member's question in relation to expanding the scope of practice of community pharmacies, this government has, if you like, runs on the board in this regard. It was this government that only in the past 12 months allowed pharmacists to provide immunisation for children over the age of 10. It was your government that said that pharmacists could not do it under the age of 16.

This government is the government that has demonstrated its commitment to immunisation by introducing free flu vaccines for children under five. We certainly regard pharmacies as a key element in the health system. It is not an area where we are the primary funder. That is primarily done by the commonwealth government.

In relation to the honourable member's question about the supply of vaccines to pharmacies, I am very concerned about suggestions that there is a distribution problem in relation to vaccine supplies to pharmacists. However, let me be clear: this is not a distribution problem in relation to government-funded national immunisation program vaccines, this is a problem in relation to privately-funded vaccines.

Of course, that is of concern to us because whether it is privately funded or publicly funded, it does impact on herd immunity. I was discussing this issue only last night. The health ministers had a discussion on exactly this issue. The commonwealth gave an undertaking that it would do what it could to facilitate the private sector distribution—but let's be clear: it's the private sector's distribution.