It’s been about a week since the debate about whether pharmacists should be able to administer vaccines has flared up. With the pilot trial in Queensland due to begin in flu season, this won’t be the last you will be hearing about this issue!

The Queensland Pharmacist Immunisation Pilot (QPIP) will begin in the 2014 flu season. It has been approved by the Department of Health, and is a joint project of the Queensland branches of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia and the Pharmacy Guild of Australia. Two Queensland universities will also have a role in ensuring that the pilot’s research outcomes are of a high standard. The Pharmacy Board of Australia will also be monitoring the trial.

The pilot program follows on from the Pharmacy Board of Australia’s findings that vaccination is within the current scope of practice of pharmacists. However, Australian Medical Association (AMA) President Dr Steve Hambleton has said that “pharmacies have no proven record that they are safe or appropriate locations for such a private and potentially risky clinical procedure as vaccination.” He called for the pilot program to be stopped, and stated that the AMA’s stance is for vaccinations to be carried out in a general practice.

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia (PGA) has hit back at the AMA’s calls to scrap the QPIP. George Tambassis, the National President of the PGA has said that “The AMA’s criticisms are not driven by concerns about patients but their preference to retain control over all aspects of the health system, even if it means reduced access for patients.”

The most recent attacks on the QPIP trial came from a company employing nurse practitioners who provide vaccinations in pharmacies. The Twitter picture (shared by Victorian Pharmacy Guild President Anthony Tassone) in the link is of a full-page ad taken out in the Queensland Sunday Mail on 23rd March which discredits pharmacist vaccination.

After reading what Revive Clinic put out 2day Im glad my pharmacy is using an alt provider of NPs for our flu clinic pic.twitter.com/yBjK1FMjSq

— Anthony Tassone (@A_Tass1) March 23, 2014

Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young has said that research trials such as the QPIP “help us to determine if a new method of health care delivery is safe and effective for Queenslanders.”

Recently there have been changes to the Northern Territory’s Medicines, Poisons and Therapeutic Goods Act, allowing pharmacists to provide immunisation services for conditions such as influenza and the measles.

For more on what’s been happening in the profession of pharmacy in Australia, click here.