The Department of Health and Social Care (DH) yesterday (July 3) revealed that community pharmacies will deliver human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccinations from next year.
As part of the government’s 10-year health plan – announced yesterday – it set out that “pharmacists will play a critical role in [its] ambition to improve access to fast and convenient healthcare for women”.
“From 2026...women and young people who missed out on the HPV vaccination at school will be able to have the vaccine administered at their local pharmacy,” the plan said.
Read more: NHSE mulls pharmacy HPV vaccine rollout
This drive to “increase uptake of HPV vaccinations among young people” will support the government’s “ultimate aim to eliminate cervical cancer by 2040”, it added.
Further reforms under the plan will also “help parents book vaccinations and check they are up to date through the NHS App”, it said.
Read more: IN FULL: Pharmacy to ‘transition’ from dispensing to clinical services by 2030
It comes after NHS England (NHSE) suggested in March that community pharmacies should offer HPV vaccinations to “raise awareness” and boost uptake of the jab.
At the time, it proposed that the vaccination should be offered in “alternative settings such as community pharmacies” to increase “equitable uptake”.
What else does the plan say?
Yesterday’s 10-year plan also revealed that community pharmacies will “transition” from a focus on dispensing to “offering more clinical services” over the next five years.
The DH announced that “over the first half” of the decade it will “modernise” its “approach to the dispensing of medicines and make better use of technology” by introducing “dispensing robots” in pharmacies.
Read more: DH to ‘scale’ use of robotics to’ deliver ‘care with unprecedented precision’
The plan also said that pharmacies will be given a “bigger role in prevention by expanding their role in vaccine delivery and in screening for risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes”.
And it added that “over time”, community pharmacies will be “securely joined up to the single patient record”.
Check the C+D site for the latest on this developing story
