Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care Services) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] As pharmacies undertake their onboarding process for delivery of vaccines through the national vaccination program there is a process of onboarding registration and ordering of vaccines. There is a cycle of assessment of that process, of preparing the pharmacist to ensure that the appropriate training has been undertaken so that the vaccines are handled appropriately and administered as they should be. We have seen in the past circumstances where [inaudible] appropriate training and that has led to mistakes. So as part of the onboarding process the pharmacists are registered and go through a process of assessment and training. While that process is being undertaken their orders are taken from them and deliveries are processed. It does take a couple of weeks to onboard a pharmacist into the system, but that's done deliberately so that we can ensure that the vaccination process is undertaken safely and in accordance with the appropriate processes of delivery of the vaccine to the Australian community.