Patient
enters the pharmacy, asks if the flu vaccines for the year have
arrived as of yet.
Patient then asks if they can have one and bring the prescription
back.
At this point,
I, and many others I'm sure, explain that the flu vaccine is a
prescription only medicine, and I then outline the situations
in which I can provide a prescription only product without a prescription,
of which supply of the influenza vaccine would not fit.
The patient
then rightly argues that they would have to see the doctor in
order to get a prescription, pay the medical gap, bring the prescription
back to the pharmacy to be filled, then return to the doctor and
once again pay the gap.
This would mean payment for two doctors visits when one would
be sufficient.
What is more,
the customer gets rather upset because "it was never a problem
with my last flu vaccine".
Truly if ever
there was a need to down schedule an item, the flu vaccine would
be it.
While not going as far as to suggest that pharmacist should employ
someone to give these vaccinations (but I'm not drawing too long
a bow there), perhaps it is time the lawmakers looked at allowing
pharmacists to provide subsidised products (such as flu vaccine)
without prescription.
Add to this
debate the recent data suggesting that the current method of flu
vaccine distribution through medical centres is wasteful, and
a scathing editorial in a leading doctors publication suggesting
that any move made by the Pharmacy Guild to regulate vaccinations
was ludicrous.
Is it an even
better idea to clear it from the pharmacy agenda altogether and
relegate the duty to nurses, or that vaccinations be made available
through state funded public hospitals.
Either way,
I will not be providing any schedule four medications without
a prescription.
|
.jpg)
