Preparing your pharmacy
If an influenza pandemic occurs, pharmacists will play an important role in educating the public about the risks of a pandemic and about good infection control measures. They will advise on over-the-counter products for infection control and symptomatic relief, and will dispense prescribed medications. The Department of Health and Ageing is consulting with the Pharmacy Guild of Australia (external link) and the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (external link) to discuss in more detail the role pharmacists will play.
Pharmacies vary in their design and layout. Some may have a single entrance and others multiple entry points. These physical constraints are important considerations in deciding how customers would enter, move through and leave a pharmacy during a pandemic.
Pharmacies should consider:
- placing signage at entrance redirecting customers displaying flu symptoms to another appropriate facility
- providing masks at the entrance for customers displaying symptoms (e.g. fever or respiratory symptoms)
- implementing a one way route through the pharmacy
- limiting the number of customers in the premises at any one time, and where possible, maintaining a one metre distance between customers
- providing personal protective equipment for staff required to control the flow of customers in and out of the pharmacy
- displaying and making available to the public information material about pandemic influenza and infection control.
Like other primary health care facilities, pharmacies should look at their capacity to modify the internal layout of the pharmacy to create a partition between general customers and staff and members of the public who may have influenza. This may involve setting up separate zones including separate cash registers for cold and flu products, and general prescription services. The layout of a particular pharmacy will determine its ability to cope with an expected increase in customers during a pandemic. Security of the premises will also be important.
Surge demand in pharmacies
During a pandemic, pharmacies are likely to experience:
- an increase in demand for dispensing non-influenza medication from customers anxious to maintain a supply of regular medications
- requests for antiviral medicines
- an increase in demand for over the counter products such as hygiene kits, personal protective equipment, surgical masks, thermometers, and cold and flu medicine
- a demand for over-the-counter advice on pandemic influenza.
Community pharmacists will play a key role in providing frontline advice to the public, as well as disseminating health promotion materials.
This information is current for 03 September, 2010
This information was issued on 05 December, 2008
