Hawke’s Bay pharmacists’ activities during a campylobacter contamination of public water supply in Havelock North during 2016
Dianne Vicary 1 5 , Sara Salman 2 , Nicolas Jones 3 , Trudi Aspden 41 Planning and Funding, Hawke’s Bay District Health Board, Private Bag 9014, Hastings 4156, New Zealand
2 Health Hawke’s Bay, Hastings, New Zealand
3 Hawke’s Bay District Health Board, Hastings, New Zealand
4 Vicary Pharmacy Services Limited, Napier, New Zealand
5 Corresponding author. Email: Di.Vicary@hawkesbaydhb.govt.nz
Journal of Primary Health Care 12(2) 122-128 https://doi.org/10.1071/HC19110
Published: 4 June 2020
Journal Compilation © Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners 2020 This is an open access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: In August 2016 contamination of the local water supply resulted in a significant gastroenteritis outbreak in Hawke’s Bay. The significance of the initial test result was recognised early, partly as a result of information provided by a Havelock North pharmacist to health authorities about an unusual number of requests for anti-diarrhoeal medication.
AIM: To describe the breadth of activities undertaken by pharmacists working in Hawke’s Bay in August 2016, following Campylobacter jejuni contamination of the public water supply in Havelock North, New Zealand.
METHODS: All pharmacists and hospital pharmacy management staff working in Hawke’s Bay in 2017 were eligible to complete the qualitative online questionnaire. Additionally, information was requested from stakeholders with known relevant experiences. Free-text responses were thematically analysed using a general inductive approach.
RESULTS: Thirteen pharmacists and two ancillary staff from community pharmacy, hospital pharmacy, general practice, management, emergency response and dispensary management responded to the survey. Analysis of responses revealed three overarching themes and six sub-themes. The first was public wellbeing, with sub-themes of community information, local emergency response and pharmacy operational management. The second was pharmaceutical distribution, with a sub-theme of stock management. The third theme was clinical medicine management, with sub-themes of acute symptom management and medicine management.
DISCUSSION: The pharmacy profession appears to have played an important role in public wellbeing, pharmaceutical distribution and medicine therapy management during the outbreak. It is likely that through their actions, responding pharmacists reduced demand on other primary care services and prevented hospitalisations. Further research directions include exploring the effectiveness of community pharmacists in public health surveillance and the use of endorsed public health information to ensure consistent delivery of health messages.
KEYwords: Public Health; Health communication; Disaster planning; Pharmacists; Primary Health Care (all MeSH terms)
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