VACCINATION EQUITY PRIORITY FOR PHARMACY

Overcoming barriers to health access for the Indian community has been an ongoing challenge for the team at Unichem Medical Corner Pharmacy. Havingovercome barriersto access forinfluenzavaccination overthe years, pharmacists Vibhuti Patel and Ajay Patel wanted to support their community with COVID-19 vaccinations.

They werekeen to offerCOVID-19 vaccinationsthrough theirpharmacy,andafter securing a contract, immediately set to seeing if it was possible to do vaccinations in the Indian community remotely. “Once we got the approval for the mobile vaccination clinic, we went straight into the community. I have always noticed a barrier in the Indian community, those for whom English isnot their firstlanguageordid nothave accessto healthservices. Accesswas the main problem,” Vibhuti said. The team reached out to places of prayer and discovered young people in the community were keen to be involved, so were given training to help with the administration side of the vaccinations.

“Everyone involved was bilingual, and that was important for our success. People trusted they could communicate easily and get their vaccination in a familiar place,” Vibhuti said.

“A lot of migrants do not understand the health system, may not be enrolled with a general practice and know how to book vaccinations, but they were desperate to be vaccinated,” she said. “We hadpeoplecomingfrom Ashburton, Rakaiaand Kaikōura.Theyall feltisolated but knowing they could come to a place of worship without needing to book, broke those barriers, to enable equitable outcomes for the Indian community,” she said. Vibhuti and Ajay used community platforms and venues to help process vaccinations passes as well as deliver rapid antigen tests (RATs) and hope to use the same process to carry out future vaccinations.