The transfer of flu vaccinations from the clinics of the personal doctors of the GHS and the vaccination centers of the Ministry of Health to the private pharmacies of the neighbourhood is claimed by the pharmacists, with the Pancyprian Pharmaceutical Association again putting its relevant request before the Ministry of Health and the AU.
"This is not the first time that we have brought this issue back," the president of the Pancyprian Pharmaceutical Association, Plutarchos Georgiades, told "F", adding that "an issue that in the rest of the western world has been settled for decades in Cyprus we are still trying to discuss. In the rest of the world, vaccinations are done by pharmacists, here in Cyprus we are still fighting it."
Pharmacists, said Mr. Georgiadis, "are health professionals and have the necessary training to administer vaccines. At the same time, with the transfer of flu vaccinations to private pharmacies, it is expected that vaccination coverage will also increase, since it will be easier for citizens to access vaccines through their neighbourhood pharmacy, without having to either wait for their doctor to arrange an appointment, or have to go to vaccination centers to be vaccinated."
In several European countries, Mr. Georgiadis added, "other vaccinations are carried out in pharmacies, in addition to the flu with reimbursement from the national health systems".
The Pancyprian Pharmaceutical Association, he said, has already held meetings on the issue, both with the Minister of Health and with the HIO and "we find that what is needed is to make a political decision to proceed with the issue for implementation". A new meeting on the issue, he added, "is scheduled for next week and we expect that finally our request will be heard and a practice that has been applied abroad for years without problems will be implemented in Cyprus as well."
Previous efforts of the PFS, he recalled, "had come up against some objections which, we believe, do not still exist. What we need to emphasize is that in countries where vaccination is done in pharmacies, the vaccination coverage rate for influenza exceeds 90%, while in Cyprus we are around 60% every year."
As far as the rest of Europe is concerned, according to the official position of the Pharmaceutical Association of the European Union (PGEU), vaccination in pharmacies is applied in at least 15 countries. Among them are Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Norway, Romania, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
In each country a different model operates. Specifically, in several cases the pharmacists themselves, after specialized training and certification, administer influenza vaccines to citizens, while in other countries the process is carried out inside the pharmacy by nurses or other specialized health personnel.
At the same time, in several European health systems, these services are not limited to influenza but also extend to vaccines against COVID-19, pneumococcus or herpes zoster.
In many countries the cost of vaccination is fully or partially covered by public health systems and according to data from the Pharmaceutical Union of the European Union and national health organizations, public reimbursement or state funding for flu vaccination in pharmacies is provided by countries such as Ireland, Portugal, France and the United Kingdom through the NHS. Similar programmes are also in place in Norway, Denmark, Italy and in some cases in Belgium, Germany and Poland, particularly for high-risk groups and the elderly.
In Greece, citizens can obtain the flu vaccine from the pharmacy and be vaccinated on the spot by a certified pharmacist, without the need to visit a doctor's office. This possibility was initially established in 2019 for influenza vaccination and the administration of anti-tetanus serum, while it was then expanded and pharmacists acquired the ability to carry out all adult vaccines included in the National Adult Vaccination Program, as well as vaccination against COVID-19 under specific conditions.
