Order limit leaves some pharmacists with small stock of flu nasal spray in first week of WA free program

Pharmacists warned that stocks of the needle-free flu vaccine were at a minimum level in the first week of the free application for children due to order limits.

This comes just days after the Health Minister boasted that the rollout would make flu vaccines more accessible to children across the state.

FluMist, a needle-free alternative to flu vaccines, became available free of charge to Western Australian children aged two to 12 on Wednesday.

The vaccine is administered as a rapid nasal spray.

Terry White Chemmart Doubleview pharmacist Chad Arnold was forced to close reservations for his needle-free flu vaccine just two days after it became available after he was unable to order more stock.

He said he had received a pre-allocation of 20 nasal sprays but was unable to order more when FluMist became available on Tuesday because his State Government supplier did not allow more than one order per week.

“The program started on Tuesday and stock was available to order more,” he said.

“We had already used half of our 20 vaccines and essentially my order was rejected because I had ordered other vaccines that week – which essentially meant I had to wait until the 20th to order more.”

He said the delay occurred during a week when it would have been the perfect time for parents to bring their children during the school holidays.

“It was really a perfect opportunity for people to get vaccinated,” he said.

“I came in on Friday morning and had to close our reservations. I didn’t put up any signage and didn’t communicate with customers that the nasal vaccine was available for children and that it was free because we didn’t have any in stock.”

“We are faced with being out of stock for the weekend or end of school holiday because no one actually has the good sense to inspect our order properly.”

Mr Arnold said he was only able to give 20 needle-free vaccines last week, a figure that could have been double if there had been stock.

“If we could really promote this and offer bookings for free, we could easily double our numbers,” he said.

“Also, many people do not know about nasal vaccination because this is only the first year and this information needs to be supported by pharmacies and doctors to spread it.

“If you don’t have stock, you can’t promote it.”

Not being able to place her order until Monday means it could take another five days to receive more stock of FluMist.

Pharmacists and doctors will now be able to order up to 50 FluMist vaccines per week.

Preventive Health Minister Sabine Winton said the distribution limits were designed to prevent oversupply while procurement was being finalized.

“The rollout continues apace and more than 120,000 doses have already been received for distribution to communities across Western Australia in the coming weeks,” he said.

“The majority of participating providers in both metropolitan and regional WA have now begun receiving doses and availability continues to increase as additional stock is distributed.

“Demand for FluMist is still emerging as it is a new vaccine in WA, so uptake patterns are becoming clearer while distribution limits are designed to prevent oversupply in areas that may not be able to use all the doses.”

There have been 1715 cases of flu in WA so far this year; More than 440 of these infections were among children under 15 years of age.

Shadow Health Secretary Libby Mettam said the nasal spray was a great initiative but would fail if pharmacists could not access enough doses to meet demand.

“We know that childhood flu vaccination rates have fallen significantly since COVID. A needle-free option was a clear opportunity to reverse this, particularly in Western Australia, where rates are among the lowest in the country,” he said.

“You can’t increase uptake if supply is limited.”

A spokesperson for the Pharmacy Association said orders for the Government stock of FluMist opened last week and pharmacies will be able to place weekly orders for the duration of the programme.

“We encourage all parents who would like to receive the pain-free FluMist vaccine for their children aged two to eleven to book with their local pharmacy via findapharmacy.com.au,” he said.

Eligible families can access the vaccine through GPs, pharmacies, community health clinics and Aboriginal Health Services.