Push Continues for Australia-wide Pharmacist-administered Vaccination

Work on advocating for pharmacist-administered vaccination in 2015 in community pharmacies will continue this year after three states approved changes to legislation.

The Guild has been actively advocating for many years for legislative change to occur nation-wide to enable appropriately trained pharmacists to vaccinate in a community pharmacy setting.

Since 2015, approved pharmacists in NSW, SA and WA have been administering the influenza vaccine to healthy adults.

Pharmacies in NT and QLD, who are participating in their jurisdictional based trial, have been administering the influenza vaccine to eligible adults, as well as the measles and whooping cough vaccine.

The Guild is hopeful that legislation in ACT and Tasmania will be amended in time to enable pharmacist-administered influenza vaccines this season and Victoria in time for the 2017 influenza season.

Visit our vaccination services page to find out more about pharmacist-administered vaccination and the work the Guild have been pursuing in your state or territory.

2016 influenza season

The TGA have approved both trivalent and quadrivalent influenza vaccine for the Australian 2016 influenza season.

The trivalent influenza vaccine components should contain:

A (H1N1): an A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)pdm09 like virus
A (H3N2): an A/Hong Kong/4801/2014 (H3N2) like virus
B: a B/Brisbane/60/2008 like virus
The quadrivalent influenza vaccine for the Australian 2016 influenza season should contain the trivalent influenza vaccine components listed above, and the additional B strain:

B/Phuket/3073/2013 like virus.
Guild members can access member-only 2016 TIV and QIV influenza information on the Guilds website.