The Pharmacy Guild of Australia, through its member network of community pharmacies, has recently launched its Guild Corporate Health Programs – starting with a program to assist the business community to provide flu vaccinations for their employees.

Flu is a serious and highly contagious virus which impacts the health and wellbeing of many Tasmanians annually.

In 2019 over 300,000 confirmed cases of the flu were recorded. The impact is far reaching, with some people ending up in hospital with more serious complications. Even less severe cases of the flu can take weeks to recover from and can also have an impact on your business operations.

Providing your employees with the option to have a yearly flu vaccination makes good business sense.

In 2020, Tasmanian businesses will be able to utilise their local and trusted participating pharmacies to easily provide flu vaccination services to their employees, through an online booking portal.

Employees will be able to choose a convenient time to receive their flu shot by a trained pharmacist, in a quality accredited pharmacy, approved by Tasmanian State regulators.

All vaccinations received in pharmacies are recorded to the Australian Immunisation Register so in the unlikely event of an adverse reaction the vaccination batch can be tracked, for added safety.

In Tasmania, Pharmacists have been able to vaccinate against the flu since 2016. Most recently our Government allowed pharmacies to vaccinate children from ten years, further providing access to flu vaccination services for busy families.

In addition to influenza, Tasmanian Pharmacists are also able to vaccinate against Measles and also Whooping Cough. Over recent years the popularity of these services in pharmacy has grown due to convenience and accessibility.

Guild Corporate flu vaccination offers businesses the ability to provide their staff with a flexible and convenient flu vaccination service, offered over an extended time period to ensure maximum coverage and protection.

Staff are able to access vaccination providers at a time and a place that’s convenient to them and the Guild provides simple, monthly reporting to businesses to assist with managing absenteeism trends.

Invoicing is taken care of; where there may be services administered across multiple pharmacies, we simply pay our members directly and then we invoice you.

We are able to work across businesses with multiple departments or units to ensure that costs are invoiced and reported to the correct entity.

Several organisations in Tasmania have already taken advantage of this program. Sam Johnson, Human Resources Manager at Vantage Group stated: “Joining the Pharmacy Corporate Vaccination Program allows our 420 employees easier access to help protect themselves through the flu season. The program provides our employees a seamless process for Flu vaccinations more so than our previous processes which discouraged our employees to protect themselves. Vantage Group operates across Tasmania and the Corporate Vaccination Program will provide all our staff with an equal opportunity to protect themselves.”

The best defence against illness from influenza is to be vaccinated and typically immunisation services commence from April 2020, in line with advice from the Australian Department of Health’s Chief Medical Officer as to the best time to receive protection from the flu.

To have a representative come and discuss your organisational requirements please contact the Tasmanian Branch of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia on 03 6220 2955 or Branch Director: Monique Mackrill m: 0407 147 256 and Business Development Manager: Brad McArthur m: 0438 481 233