The Malaysian Pharmacists Society (MPS) shares the medical community’s premise that vaccination is part of clinical care, and not a retail transaction.
Every dose must involve proper screening and informed consent, strict cold chain handling (as specified in the product label), documentation to the national immunisation record, and readiness to manage anaphylaxis with accountable follow-up. This is exactly the model we are proposing.
MPS is calling for one national safety standard for anyone who vaccinates — doctor, pharmacist, nurse, or medical assistant — together with premises authorisation, mandatory Adverse Event Following Immunisation (AEFI) reporting to the public registry, and clear escalation pathways.
Recent statements from medical associations highlight safety and medico-legal accountability; we agree. Our point is to apply the same clinical bar everywhere patients receive care so standards are consistent across settings.
This is not about replacing general practitioners (GPs) or fragmenting services; it is about adding safe capacity where Malaysians actually live and work, especially during seasonal surges.
On the ground, families encounter system-level access gaps — limited clinic vaccine stocks during peaks, after hours constraints, and appointment bottlenecks — that can delay protection for high-risk patients and create avoidable spillover to emergency departments.
Authorising trained pharmacists in approved premises to deliver a defined adult vaccine formulary under Ministry of Health (MOH) approved standard operating procedures (SOPs) closes those gaps without lowering safety.
The numbers are not abstract. In a Klang Valley hemodialysis cohort — among our highest-risk patients — only 10.8 per cent had ever received an influenza vaccine, and 3.4 per cent received it annually. Just one in 10 recalled a clinician recommendation despite frequent health care contact.
This is not about faulting any profession; it is a care pathway gap we can fix together by embedding standing orders and counselling prompts inside high-risk services (such as dialysis centres) and by adding standards-compliant community access points so intention becomes action.
There is a clear, safe path forward. In Singapore, the Ministry of Health’s Community Pharmacist Influenza Vaccination Sandbox (launched October 2024) uses trained personnel, audited premises and AEFI protocols. By the end of July 2025, about 1,200 vaccinations had been delivered in retail pharmacies and the programme was extended for upcoming flu seasons as more sites came online.
In the Philippines, pharmacist immunisation is authorised in national law and implemented via regulator-run certification with AEFI and reporting requirements in Food and Drug Administration-licensed outlets, showing how statutes, training, and premises standards work together.
Beyond precedents, the evidence is consistent: when trained pharmacists participate, vaccination uptake rises — especially for influenza — through convenience and timeliness, while mature programmes report no excess safety signals when reporting and audits are mandatory.
MPS also supports better access to self-testing as part of a prevention-first approach. There has to be Medical Device Authority (MDA) registered influenza self-test kits made available to the public to improve access.
Singapore has self-test kits that the public can use at home to check for Covid-19 or Influenza A and B, so that those who test positive can seek medical help. Why can’t Malaysians have the same level of access?
Vaccination is clinical care—and our proposal keeps it that way. One standard for everyone who vaccinates, authorised premises with anaphylaxis readiness, mandatory AEFI reporting to the national record, and clear referral pathways. This is how we protect patients while closing access gaps and bringing prevention closer to home.
This is the moment for joint clinical leadership: let’s co-design, with MOH, the national SOPs and indemnity language, and fully authorise trained pharmacists to vaccinate adults under those rules.
More approved vaccination points, the same safety bar, and shared data — this is how we lift coverage quickly and stay ready for the next wave.
Accordingly, MPS supports a joint path with MOH and professional councils to:
- Publish national SOPs (screening/consent; anaphylaxis algorithm; AEFI and registry workflows).
- Define premises checks (adrenaline kit, observation area, cold chain monitoring, escalation/referral).
- Connect every vaccinator to the electronic immunisation record with read-write access.
- Adopt a fee schedule recognising the full cost to serve (vaccine, time, storage, waste, documentation).
These elements reflect regional practice and international guidance. Implemented together, they deliver safety, accountability and continuity — without retailising care — and help Malaysia keep hospitals available for those who truly need them.
This statement was issued by the Malaysian Pharmacists Society (MPS).
- This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of CodeBlue.
