Mnlf and Sinasfa: “Vaccinating pharmacists? Too many aspects still to be clarified”

Rif Day – 22 marzo 2021

Vaccinating pharmacists: as was quite predictable, there are those - especially among non-registered pharmacists - who are far from enthusiastic about the possibility of allowing pharmacists to administer the anti-Covid vaccine without the presence of a doctor, introduced by the recent decree law Supports.

First of all, the National Movement of Free Pharmacists expresses itself negatively on this new measure, which puts forward three critical observations: the first is that “At the current state of affairs, there is no rule, law or effective provision that protects the vaccinating pharmacist from both a criminal and a civil point of view. The existing law, Gelli-Bianco on health liability, has only made the matter more tangled from a legal point of view, but has not resolved the problems at hand, After all” concludes on the point Mnlf "what happened in Sicily regarding the alleged adverse effects of the Astra Zeneca vaccine and the related guarantee notice to doctors and nurses is emblematic". The second critical consideration refers to the liability in the event of an adverse reaction, mild or serious, following the administration of the vaccine by the pharmacist, who “falls on the structure to which it is linked by an employment contract. Just the Gelli-Bianco law (24/2017) encourages calling the health facility into question ". Finally, the third point is of a contractual nature: the current CCNL of the pharmacist employed by a pharmacy, observes the acronym for free pharmacists, "it is connected to that of commerce and does not contemplate medical acts such as the inoculation of a vaccine, it has been vacant in the renewal for over eight years. Before, the contract had to be updated and include new prerogatives and legal protections, only after implementing these prerogatives".

Il concetto, insomma, è che l’”arruolamento” dei farmacisti tra le fila dei vaccinatori sia stato troppo frettoloso e abbia trascurato aspetti che, invece, non potevano né dovevano essere ignorati. "For these reasons, the MNLF believes that there are not sufficient conditions for the pharmacist to carry out the vaccination directly" reads the note released today by free pharmacists "both because he is not protected, and because the lack of a contract that has expired for over eight years which falls within the trade and not in the health sector, does not specifically define the 'fence' of the charges and duties to be followed".

Mnlf acknowledges that "the possibility of vaccinating can be an opportunity for growth for the pharmacist", but believes that “it cannot be implemented by improvising roles for the sole purpose of supporting political careers or economic objectives of a minority of Italian pharmacists. It is certainly appropriate” concludes the statement "to involve the largest number of vaccination sites in this phase, but we believe that the presence of the doctor is now essential".

But the thumbs down also comes from Sinasfa, the national union of non-owner pharmacists chaired by Francis Empress (in the picture), which evaluates the important innovations introduced by the Sostegni Decree also in light of the national anti-Covid plan launched by the government on March 13, a document which among the health professions identified as vaccinators also indicates the figure of the pharmacist, among others. "The problem" observes Sinasfa "is that it is not clear which pharmacists will be involved in the vaccination campaign: any pharmacy graduate regardless of their profession, or only those who practice the profession in pharmacy?”

If the intention were the latter, writes Imperadrice in a note released yesterday, it would be in her opinion "a very serious mistake that would weaken the vaccination campaign, depriving this task force of thousands of potential vaccinating pharmacists who would be excluded due to the place where they practice, something absolutely incomprehensible in this dramatic moment, as well as a serious form of discrimination against professionals who they would like to do their part to help the country”.

"There are less than twenty thousand pharmacies in Italy and we have reason to believe that a certain number may not join the vaccination campaign as they do not have the minimum essential requirements to be able to do them both from a structural point of view and in terms of available personnel" Imperadrice writes again, who then raises a series of other questions: “How many pharmacies have at most one or two employees who can barely dispense the medicines and carry out all the other tasks entrusted to them? Has a cognitive census been carried out to see how many pharmacies at a national level could join and therefore what would be the potential for vaccinations they could carry out? By carrying out vaccinations without the presence of a doctor, who would provide assistance for any adverse event? Whose responsibility would that be?”

The president of Sinasfa then refers to the position taken by the president Fnomceo Philip Rings, who just yesterday asked the Government to take a step back from the decision to cancel the rule of the 2021 Budget law with the Sostegni decree which established that vaccinations in pharmacies should take place under the supervision of a doctor. “We are in complete agreement with Anelli, the issue of safety is essential, the vaccine is a drug and must be administered after anamnestic and clinical evaluation in the presence of a doctor who can obtain informed consent to evaluate the patient's state of health and promptly manage any side effects.”

Without prejudice to the condition of the doctor's presence, for Sinasfa - in a moment of emergency such as the current one - we cannot think of excluding from the vaccination campaign every pharmacist who can make a contribution: from pensioners to the pharmacists of parapharmacies, from drug sales representatives fup to colleagues no longer enrolled in the professional order for various reasons. The proposal of the union of non-owners is to create a single national database where all the approximately one hundred thousand Italian pharmacy graduates can register on a voluntary basis and give their availability to join the vaccination campaign as vaccinating pharmacists. “To this database” writes Sinasfa "all the 'coordinators' who are in charge of organizing the vaccination centers in any province should have access, drawing on the number of pharmacists necessary to guarantee, together with the other health professionals, a continuous and uninterrupted cycle of vaccinators, which would help to achieve or even to improve the goals that the Government has set itself”.

Also considering the thousands of collaborating pharmacists who work in the pharmacy for a few hours a day on part-time contracts, Sinasfa believes that there could be tens of thousands of colleagues who would join the vaccination campaign.

"Pharmacists are ready to do their part and collaborate with all health professionals to administer vaccines in the presence of a doctor, in large and adequate facilities and with the same rights as any other health worker who administers vaccines" Sinasfa writes again, listing those rights: personal protective equipment, remuneration proportional to that of the other health professionals who administer the vaccines and insurance or "criminal shield" as provided for all vaccinators. The union chaired by Imperadrice also makes a proposal relating to the necessary and certified training to allow the pharmacist to be able to administer the vaccine which, in addition to the course at the Higher Institute of Health, should be done by special tutors within the vaccination centres, with the delivery at the end of the theoretical-practical training course of a certificate of suitability for the administration.

In these terms, concludes Sinasfa, the direct participation of pharmacists in the campaign, as well as representing "a very important social mission, it could also be a starting point for developing new skills and creating new job opportunities outside the work in the pharmacy, which does not offer any gratification both from a contractual and a remunerative point of view“.

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