Mr Sawer complained that “wholesalers were not involved in direct discussions” with the DH while it was working to secure extra stock of influenza vaccines, which were made available to pharmacies in England in October and in Wales earlier this month.

This was a “lost opportunity to enable a more certain rapid uptake of this season's flu vaccine”, as wholesalers’ involvement could have “eased any supply problems", he said.

“So, there might be individual pockets of the country where access could be delayed,” Mr Sawer warned. “We believe there are sufficient stocks of flu vaccines, but they need firm orders now to be supplied to community pharmacy.”

A Department of Health and Social Care (DH) spokesperson told C+D yesterday (November 29) that there are “no national supply issues with flu vaccines”.

C+D has contacted the DH regarding Mr Sawer’s comments.

Pharmacies “tightly manage” last few weeks of flu jab season

It is typical for “the current time in late November” – almost three months into the flu vaccination season – for wholesalers to buy flu jab stock from manufacturers, based on “firm community pharmacy orders”, Mr Sawer told C+D.

But calculating how much stock is needed for these orders can prove difficult, as pharmacies are not reimbursed for any vaccines they do not use, Mr Sawer added.

Reena Barai, owner of the S G Barai Pharmacy in Sutton, told C+D last week that her pharmacy “tightly manages these last few weeks of the flu jab season as we don’t want to order more than we will use”.

She suggested that “many pharmacy teams probably under-estimated the demand this year”, which could have contributed to some using up their stocks by the middle of October.

Ms Barai said she had problems accessing flu vaccines earlier this month and was worried she would not have adequate stock for her pharmacy team to continue vaccinating patients.

“The extra supplies available from the DH didn’t become available until November”, she said, “so there was a lag time over which many wouldn’t have been able to vaccinate, potentially”. However, Ms Barai told C+D that supplies had been easier to come by as of last week, when their availability became "more transparent".

C+D reported yesterday that Boots pharmacies are “nearing the end” of their flu vaccine stock for patients aged over 65.