While the French are in favor of vaccination in pharmacies, doctors believe that they are the only ones able to restore confidence in the French.
Should we open the vaccination to pharmacists? While the first concerned are in favor, the doctors violently oppose it. “Vaccination deserves better than simplistic ideas,” protested MG France, the first general practitioner union, in a press release.
The idea of extending vaccination to pharmacies was raised by the Minister of Health, Marisol Touraine, during the Health law vote last year to improve vaccination coverage. Argument taken up by the Order of Pharmacists, and to which the French are not insensitive. Indeed, according to an Odoxa survey, commissioned by the professional authority, nearly 6 out of 10 French people say they are “rather favorable” to the vaccination of adults by pharmacists, with regard to influenza.
Based on these results, the Order then suggested the launch of a three-year experiment “allowing pharmacists to administer the influenza vaccine to adults”, as is already done in the United Kingdom, Switzerland or Australia. .
Bronca
A suggestion that displeases general practitioners, for several reasons. Vaccination by pharmacists will not restore patient confidence in these drugs, they believe. “Confidence can only return within the framework of the privileged relationship that the doctor has established with his patient and his family”, estimates MG France.
The union also recalls that vaccination is not simply a technical gesture but that it “supposes a preliminary evaluation of the medical and vaccination history of the patient”, as well as a “discussion on the presumed risks and the advantages of certain , then follow-up for any complications, immediate or not ”.
Keep the monopoly
Finally, he considers that “the attending physician must be able to access quickly and at any time the vaccines necessary for his patient”, and that “traceability must be ensured and accessible”. A role that must be played by pharmacists, according to general practitioners.
As such, MG France proposes that general practitioners have at their disposal a batch of anti-influenza vaccines, “in proportion to the number of its patients concerned”, and that this batch be stored with their pharmacist colleagues. A sharing of tasks that should not delight pharmacies …
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