Written answers

Wednesday, 7 October 2020

Department of Health

Vaccination Programme

Photo of David CullinaneDavid Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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230. To ask the Minister for Health his plans for the delivery by pharmacists of off-site vaccination clinics; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29063/20]

Photo of Stephen DonnellyStephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Due to the impact of COVID-19 there will be additional pressures on our healthcare services this winter, and therefore increasing access to the influenza vaccine is a high priority to protect members of our society, especially the most at-risk groups, and to help mitigate the impact on the health services as the pandemic evolves.

To enable the role out of this policy I, as Minister for Health, have signed into law Statutory Instrument No. 401 of 2020 - Medicinal Products (Prescription and Control of Supply) (Amendment) (No. 5) Regulations 2020. These Regulations amend the Medicinal Products (Prescription and Control of Supply) Regulations 2003 to allow for influenza vaccination to be administered by registered pharmacists in places other than the premises of the retail pharmacy business in which they carry on their professional practice, in order to help address the public health need to increase access to the influenza vaccine.

The 2020/2021 influenza vaccination season will be the 10th year that pharmacists have been permitted to provide this service to patients. Since the pharmacy vaccination service began, The pharmacy regulator, the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (the PSI) have carried out a number of evaluations and a user satisfaction survey which have identified that this service is well received by the public and is provided to a high standard.

It was therefore considered appropriate to build on the existing good practice and patient trust to further develop this service, in order to meet the evolving healthcare needs of the public and support the national healthcare system, particularly during this time of a pandemic and to take some of the vaccination workload off GPs.

Due to the impact of COVID-19, there is a public health need to increase access to the influenza vaccine. This need can now be greatly assisted by enabling pharmacists to provide vaccination services offsite from the pharmacy premises, for those who may be cocooning, or in other at-risk groups and/or apprehensive about accessing this service directly in a pharmacy or GP surgery. This has the potential to greatly increase uptake of the influenza vaccine in all the groups, who can avail of the vaccine free of charge in particular those in the at-risk categories, as well as patients wishing to access this service privately. It also enables pharmacists who may be unable to provide a vaccination service on their pharmacy premises during the 2020/21 flu season, (due to requirements for social distancing/staff restraints etc.) to continue to provide this service for their patients and local community, albeit at a different, but safe location.

The current training in place for the provision of vaccination services, which is accredited by the PSI, the existing suite of PSI Vaccination Guidance, in combination with the Immunisation guidelines for Ireland is comprehensive and can be applied to setting up and delivering this service at non-pharmacy locations. Therefore, no additional accredited training for pharmacists is needed at this time.

To further support this practice extension, the PSI intends to publish an additional guidance piece to support pharmacy owners, superintendent pharmacists and supervising pharmacists in planning and setting up a safe and effective vaccination service offsite from the pharmacy premises.

It is not the role of the Minister for Health to set up off-site influenza vaccination clinics led by pharmacists or any other healthcare professional, rather this is demand led and arranged locally as the need arises, in lines with applicable regulatory requirements and clinical and practice guidelines.

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