NHS England (NHSE) this week (March 3) notified “the market of an opportunity to provide a community pharmacy RSV and pertussis vaccination enhanced service within the Midlands region”.
Currently, NHSE offers a pertussis – also known as whooping cough - vaccine to pregnant women and a national adult and infant RSV vaccine programme through GP practices and NHS trusts.
But it said that in addition to this, “where there are areas of identified additional need, the commissioner will commission community pharmacy to provide additional capacity”.
Read more: Sick pay: PDA to lobby CPhO after pharmacy hit with whooping cough
The tender notice said that the service will be offered at “up to 66 sites” from May 2025 until March 31 2027 – with an option for NHSE to extend this until March 2029.
“The value of the service provision…will be an item of service (IoS) fee of £9.58 for the administration of each RSV and pertussis vaccine to each eligible patient,” it added.
“Even geographical spread”
“The 66 successful sites will be in three integrated care boards (ICBs) within the Midlands region,” the tender said.
These include NHS Black Country ICB, NHS Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland ICB and NHS Birmingham and Solihull ICB, it added.
Read more: Whooping cough: DH reactivates two SSPs for antibiotic clarithromycin
NHSE will allocate 22 sites “per lot to allow the commissioner to ensure an even geographical spread”, it said.
It added that the deadline for responses to the tender is 12pm on March 14.
Whooping cough latest
In May, the government reactivated two serious shortage protocols (SSPs) for the antibiotic clarithromycin amid an ongoing outbreak of whooping cough.
The news came as the government warned last March that whooping cough cases were skyrocketing - with more than 500 cases in England that January compared with a total of almost 860 “for the whole of” the previous year.
Read more: Whooping coughing cases skyrocketing, warns government
Meanwhile, PDA Scotland head of policy Maurice Hickey last week told C+D that he was set to lobby for pharmacy staff to be included under NHS Scotland sick leave policy in his next meeting with the chief pharmaceutical officer (CPhO) for Scotland Alison Strath.
The move came after a Scottish pharmacy staff member came down with whooping cough but returned to work before they had fully recovered, leading to three additional colleagues catching the illness, he said.
