The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has called for the expansion of community pharmacy vaccine services amid a measles outbreak in north London.
NPA chair Olivier Picard said the outbreak was “alarming” and “another indication of the impact that declining childhood vaccination rates has on outbreaks of preventable but serious illness”.
He added that the “decade-long” decline in MMR vaccine uptake is “a sign that the current system is simply not working, and needs urgent reviewing by the NHS”.
“We need to work across the whole health service to perform this vital public health role, not leave it to just one small part of it,” he said.
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The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said several north London schools have been affected by the measles outbreak, with 34 confirmed cases in Enfield according to the latest available data.
Enfield’s Ordnance Unity Centre for Health also reported that infections have been confirmed “across at least seven schools in Enfield and Haringey”.
One in five children have been hospitalised during the outbreak, it added, and “all of them had not been fully immunised”.
It comes after the UK last month lost its status as a measles-free country due to a rise in cases, with government data showing that the percentage of children receiving both doses of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine before age five has fallen to 84%.
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Picard said the NPA has “long called for the NHS to use the extensive experience that pharmacies have delivering flu and covid vaccinations”.
“This will help to increase the uptake of those people who may be hesitant to get vaccinated or those who may find a GP setting for those vaccinations too inconvenient to access,” he added.
The “deep-seated cultural barriers” that can cause vaccine hesitancy must also be broken down, Picard said - and this could be done with existing NHS booking systems, which make it “easier for patients to get vaccinated”.
Pharmacies are ‘key’
Picard also noted that pharmacies are “quick, reliable and convenient places to receive vaccinations, with evidence suggesting that using pharmacies in other NHS vaccination campaigns increases uptake, particularly in more deprived communities”.
“We must do all we can to prevent these outbreaks starting in the first place,” he stressed, “and the NHS should listen to the body of evidence that suggests pharmacies are a key way to tackle a growing and alarming drop off in vaccination rates among children”.
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It comes after the Department of Health and Social Care (DH) last month signalled their intention to allow pharmacists to deliver “any vaccine against an infectious disease caused by a virus or bacteria”.
The DH said the change to regulations would “enable community pharmacies to provide wider outreach services and support a wider range of national vaccination programmes”.
