Vaccinations even in pharmacies: how they will work and what the doctors say

In the coming weeks, doctors working in hospitals and vaccination hubs for the campaign against Covid-19 will be joined by the pharmacists, dentists, nurses outside working hours and pediatricians of free choice. According to Sostegni decree law approved in recent days, the vaccine doses – probably the simplest to keep as those of AstraZeneca or those arriving in April by Johnson & Johnson – will be administered by pharmacists, on an experimental basis, after a 16-hour training course already prepared by the Higher Institute of Health.

To specify the aspects relating to structural requirements of the premises and at security measures in the next few days they will think about specific agreements with the trade unions and the professional order that will make up a operating protocol. Therefore it is evident that not all nearly 20,000 Italian pharmacies will be able to join the vaccination campaign but it is still likely that a good number, such as those who have offered and are offering rapid antigenic swabs and serological tests, may join the effort. To reach at least 400 thousand daily doses as early as April.

Pharmacists must transmit “without delay and with secure telematic methods” the data relating to vaccinations carried out daily. The trade unions, Federfarma in the lead, and the professional order are ready to leave with their staff of 70 thousand pharmacists. “It is a duty to do so – he explained in recent days to theActed Andrea Mandelli, president of the Federation of Italian Pharmacist Orders and vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies – because we need to vaccinate as much as possible, as quickly as possible. It will obviously be on base voluntary, but we expect a high level of adhesion ». After all, in many countries, from France which has just started to Great Britain, from the United States to Portugal to Ireland, pharmacists are already engaged in vaccination.

“We are ready to define an operational protocol for an effective vaccination campaign in the pharmacy, also thanks to our positive experience reported with antigen tests – he said instead Marco Cossolo, president of Federfarma – in this way the network of over 19 thousand Italian pharmacies will be able to make their contribution to achieving the goal of vaccinating as many people as possible and in the shortest possible time ». The game will also be part of the contract renewal.

Already last October 7,500 pharmacists have voluntarily carried out training courses for the administration of vaccines and today there are 5,174 enabled, while another 2,800 are completing the update. But certainly there will be no begging for the vaccine at the pharmacy: the convocation by the local health authorities o la booking according to your age group after which the system may indicate the pharmacy closest to one’s residence as the vaccination site. Pharmacists will set up a special corner inside the shop or a outdoor gazebo as is already the case for tampons. Everything should be watched over (even remotely and extensively, not with the actual daily presence) a doctor. The decree, by deleting a previous provision inserted in the last budget law, has in fact excluding the direct presence of a doctor for vaccination, on the other hand, there would not be enough to join such a network.

Precisely on this point the Federation of orders of doctors and dentists she opposed instead, with criticisms and observations which she claims are in favor of safety: “The right need to accelerate and expand the vaccination campaign it cannot be at the expense of securitySaid the federation. Explaining that indeed the administrations should also be done in parapharmacies but that “the vaccine is a drug and must be administered, as required by regulatory agencies, only with a doctor’s prescription, that is, after the anamnestic and clinical evaluation – added the president Filippo Anelli – always that is below the supervision, in the presence, of a physician, who can collect informed consent, assess the patient’s state of health and manage promptly any side effects. This is provided by the Italian Medicines Agency, which expressly recommends in case of administration of the vaccine ‘urgent medical attention if symptoms of a severe allergic reaction occur‘”. A point that clashes, however, with the actual availability of staff.

In reality, doctors say that since they will be involved among pediatricians, specialists, dentists and other figures an additional 164,800 health workers, there are the resources for dispatch a doctor to each pharmacy where he will be vaccinated and in this sense they ask for a national coordination: «For this reason in all vaccination centers, and therefore even in pharmacies and parapharmacies, the safety of the service must be a certainty – adds Anelli – safety which, as also sanctioned by the regulatory authorities at the time of placing the preparations on the market and by the Ministry of Health, goes through several steps, all of which require the presence of the doctor:anamnesis, the assessment of the patient’s state of health and theeligibility for vaccination, l’possible choice of the type of vaccine in conjunction with particular conditions, and, last but not least, the prevention and management of possible, albeit rare, adverse events of varying severity, also through the prompt administration of adequate drugs ».