CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — The head of the P.E.I. Pharmacists Association is still waiting for a response from P.E.I.’s Department of Health about its plans to roll out this year’s flu vaccine.
Erin MacKenzie, the association’s executive director, told a standing committee on Wednesday that pharmacists will face added challenges to providing influenza vaccines during the coming flu season. But after a meeting with Health Minister James Aylward on Aug. 24, MacKenzie said she is still waiting to hear back about the province’s plans for the roll-out.
She said she was told she would hear details within seven to 10 days.
"At that meeting, I said, 'I cannot over-emphasize how important this is and how time sensitive this is because people are trying to make their plans now,’" MacKenzie said.
"Sadly, we have not heard back to date what the plan will be. I'm very hopeful that we're going to hear something very, very soon."
MacKenzie added that the province’s Chief Public Health Office (CPHO) does have its overall plan for the influenza vaccine prepared but said the Department of Health’s procedural and policy plans have not been received. She said pharmacists administered 52 per cent of the flu shots in the province in 2019.
The province’s influenza immunization program will assume increased importance due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Island’s flu season and a possible second wave of the pandemic could coincide, and demand for the vaccination is anticipated to increase by 25 per cent.
At the same time, many public health nurses may be redeployed from immunization to COVID-19 priorities, and public health safety precautions may mean pharmacies will take on added logistical and financial challenges.
"The intensive sanitization procedures that are going to have to be adopted – the pre-screening, post-screening and making sure that the capacity within the pharmacy is not exceeded due to CPHO guidelines – pharmacists are going to have to employ new ways of making sure people have access to the flu shot," MacKenzie said.
MacKenzie said this could involve using off-site locations for immunization and a heavier emphasis on by-appointment immunization. This could impose greater staffing burdens for pharmacies, she said.
Access to personal protective equipment (PPE) could also pose a challenge.
MacKenzie said her organization sent a proposal for addressing these challenges in a letter on July 10 to the Department. The letter requested an increased “COVID premium” immunization fee from the province, that PPE be supplied through provincial procurement and that billing barriers be removed for providing other vaccines.
MacKenzie said pharmacists are crucial health-care providers in 49 communities on P.E.I. During the early month of the COVID-19 pandemic, she said pharmacists were often “inundated” with requests from patients looking for answers related to COVID-19 and other health concerns.
She said the P.E.I. Pharmacists Association has long asked for the province to allow pharmacists to practise to their full scope and that remuneration be offered for services such as providing assessments and medication refills.
She said this could help alleviate the burden on physicians and nurses in the province.
“We have health-care professionals here that we're not investing in that could absolutely take some of those pressures off of those other frontline health-care professionals,” MacKenzie said.
