Swine flu vaccination? Don't call us!

So there you have it! According to an article in The Chemist and Druggist, the Health Minister, Andy Burnham, has not included Pharmacits in the list of Health care Professionals who should receive vaccination against swine flu http://tinyurl.com/n4393h .

This surely shows either how little the government (and especially this particular Health Minister - formerly Minister for Pharmacy, no less) know or care about the profession. With that in mind, and leaving aside the obvious health issues not just for pharmacists, but for all members of all pharmacy teams, is the penny ever going to drop with us all that we need far more that the proposed new professional body (which the overwhelming majority of the profession did NOT vote for). If this is the best they can do, we need to really take charge of our own destiny and explain, lobby and utilise the media in the way other groups do. There doesn't seem to be anything other than the deafening sound of silence from our leadership.

Most of us have families, some of whom themselves might be vulnerable individuals. To exclude us wholesale from the programme beggars belief, given the likelihood that as a group, we are more likely than most to come in contact with the public. How many pharmacies are either collection points for anti-virals or will inevitably be the front line in meeting potentially infected people face to face, seeing the public are being told not to go to work, to A & E, the GP - but theyare not being told to avoid the pharmacy, where they can at least buy medicines to treat their symptoms or collect prescriptions.