Pharmacy is now a major vaccination provider, but lifting uptake will depend on aligning policy, funding and legislation – as well as how effectively pharmacists embed vaccination into everyday care.
Speaking at the Communicable Diseases & Immunisation Conference 2026 last week, outgoing PSA inaugural Vaccination Ambassador Anna Theophilos MPS set out what it will take to expand pharmacist vaccination and close persistent gaps in access nationwide.
Pharmacists as vaccinators is no longer up for debate
More than a decade has passed since pharmacists first began administering influenza vaccines as part of a pilot program. Today, pharmacists can initiate and administer vaccines to protect patients against 25 vaccine-preventable diseases. Ms Theophilos said that pharmacists had proved themselves as vaccinators:
‘The true measure of success is no longer whether pharmacy can vaccinate. It’s whether we can achieve full alignment between this extraordinary infrastructure and our public health goals.’
There’s more to access than physical location
Physical access has long been one of pharmacy’s major strengths, with ‘more community pharmacies in Australia than Woolworths and McDonald’s combined’, Ms Theophilos said.
But physical proximity doesn’t guarantee access to care.
‘Access is not simply about opening the door to another provider,’ she said. ‘True access is about removing every barrier between a patient and that provider.’
There’s also more to access than remuneration
The introduction of the National Immunisation Program Vaccinations in Pharmacy (NIPVIP) in 2024 removed one of the most significant barriers – cost.
‘For years, pharmacists found themselves having difficult conversations with patients. The vaccine was free, but the administration fee wasn’t,’ she said. ‘For many patients, that fee became the difference between vaccinating today and delaying vaccination altogether.’
‘State legislation must align with federal funding. It’s as simple as that.’
Anna Theophilos MPS
The recent expansion of NIPVIP in this year’s federal budget to include children under 5 represents another step forward. However, differences in state and territory legislation continue to affect access to care.
‘Parents have openly told me that their younger children don’t receive an influenza vaccination because they simply never get around to making a separate appointment with a GP,’ she said.
‘I can vaccinate their 6-year-old.I can vaccinate their 8-year-old. I can vaccinate their 10-year-old. But I can’t vaccinate their 4-year-old, often the child at greatest risk.’
The result isn’t just reduced access. It’s confusion. And when healthcare becomes confusing, people delay it.
‘Alignment with the Australian Immunisation Handbook across all jurisdictions is overdue,’ Ms Theophilos said. ‘State legislation must align with federal funding. It’s as simple as that.’
Vaccination isn’t yet standard care in every pharmacy. This must change
If anyone knows how to expand vaccination services, it’s Ms Theophilos. When she first took over her Melbourne-based community pharmacy in 2022, it was providing 200 vaccinations per year; now, the pharmacy administers almost 7,000.
How? integration.
‘Vaccination stopped being a service we offered and became part of the care we delivered,’ she said.
In practice, that means every member of the pharmacy team has a defined role; pharmacy assistants identify opportunities before a pharmacist is even involved.
‘A patient asks for Gastro-Stop because they’re heading overseas next month? Before I even know they are in the pharmacy, they’re being walked down to the consultation room for a Hepatitis A and Typhoid vaccination.’
By the time the pharmacist enters the consultation room, screening is complete, paperwork is done and the focus can be purely clinical.
‘Alignment of vaccination within your workflow, rather than alongside it as a separate service, is one of the most important drivers of vaccination success,’ Ms Theophilos said.
Consistency matters too
Patients often walk into a pharmacy seeking a vaccination only to be told the pharmacy doesn’t offer vaccinations, or that the vaccinating pharmacist isn’t available.
‘Imagine walking into a pharmacy with a prescription and being told, “Sorry, we don’t dispense today.” It would be unthinkable,’ she said. ‘Yet we continue to accept this variability when it comes to vaccination.’
Pharmacy vaccination, she argued, has matured beyond being an optional service. ‘It must become a standard expectation of care.’
Making more powerful recommendations
Offering vaccination is one thing. But , clinical education is what turns a vaccination schedule into a strong health professional recommendation.
For example, when a patient says, ‘I’ve had eight COVID-19 shots – surely that’s enough’, pharmacists can explain why boosters remain important for older adults. This includes discussing the risks associated with COVID-19 infection, including heart attack, stroke and myocarditis, and explaining that these risks are generally higher from the disease than from vaccination.
‘Education turns eligibility into relevance. And relevance drives recommendations, which drives uptake,’ Ms Theophilos said.
Reaching thousands not hundreds
Technology is what then allows all of this to scale, enabling:
- identification of eligible patients rather than waiting for them to present
- automated reminders and recalls
- delivery of education through multiple channels
- movement beyond manual processes that are difficult to sustain and scale.
‘Technology is the mechanism that allows those strategies to reach thousands rather than hundreds,’ she said.
In Ms Theophilos’ view, ‘Access without funding creates barriers. Funding without legislation creates confusion. Education without navigation creates hesitation. And technology without integration creates complexity.’
But when those elements align, vaccination becomes simple, scalable and sustainable.
Pharmacy has built the workforce, expanded access and delivered millions of vaccinations. What’s needed now is genuine alignment across policy, funding, legislation and practice.
‘Success is no longer about proving what pharmacy can do alone. It’s about what the health system can achieve together.’
Want to become PSA’s next Vaccination Ambassador? Register your expression of interest here. EOIs close on 30 June.
