The Department of Health and Social Care (DH) “does not currently have plans to enable community pharmacies to administer all NHS adult vaccinations”, health minister Baroness Merron revealed last week (October 1).
But she added that the government is “piloting the use of community pharmacy across several routine vaccination programmes, including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) for older adults”.
The initiative is part of the DH’s commitment to give pharmacists “a bigger role in prevention by expanding their role in vaccine delivery”, as set out in the 10-year health plan, she said.
Read more: DH: ‘No current plans’ to roll out NHS chickenpox jab in pharmacies
The comment came in a written response to a parliamentary question from Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick.
Downpatrick had asked what steps the DH is considering “to enable pharmacies to administer all adult NHS vaccinations, including for shingles and pneumococcal, to support equitable uptake from all communities”.
Calls to involve pharmacy
Merron noted that the DH will “continue to work with NHS England (NHSE) to explore and evaluate opportunities to expand the role of community pharmacy in vaccination delivery where this may support [its] efforts to improve uptake”.
Pharmacies are currently taking part in a “one-season trial of a new flu vaccination service for children aged two to three years”.
It comes after the DH told C+D last month that there are no current plans to offer the newly announced “free chickenpox vaccination” in pharmacies.
Read more: RSV jab pilot to expand by ‘up to’ 200 pharmacies
Meanwhile, the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) claimed in January that there was “very little appetite” to involve pharmacies more widely in the rollout of vaccines.
The then NPA vice chair Olivier Picard called on the government to commission pharmacies to deliver “all vaccines”, stressing that “the role of pharmacy is huge”.
And the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) issued a similar call in February, arguing that community pharmacies should play a greater role in delivering NHS vaccines to try and “drive uptake” and “prevent ill health”.
