Community Pharmacy England (CPE) is “seeking financial compensation” from NHS England (NHSE) for pharmacy owners affected by ineligible patients presenting for COVID jabs, it last week (October 10) announced.
CPE said that it has “written formally” to the NHS after reports of “high numbers of ineligible people” booking NHS COVID-19 vaccinations following the “significant change” in eligibility this winter.
Read more: Pharmacies face COVID jab chaos after ‘reckless’ rule change
The Department of Health and Social Care (DH) announced in June that the age of adults eligible for the jab would rise from 65-plus to “75 years and over” in line with advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
The negotiator said earlier this month that this change is “the key issue that is creating confusion among members of the public”.
“Deeply frustrating”
CPE said that it has been “a deeply frustrating time for pharmacy owners”, with the chaos around COVID jabs presenting “significant challenges for their teams to address”.
It added that it has raised “a significant number of concerns” about the impact of the confusion, including “the administrative burden, financial costs, impact on teams and damage to relations with the public”.
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The negotiator announced that after “careful consideration of a number of possible routes for claiming compensation”, it has asked NHSE “to pay pharmacy owners for any appointments which had been booked via the national booking system (NBS) but where people turned out to be ineligible…when they presented at the pharmacy”.
CPE today (October 14) told C+D that NHSE is “considering” its proposal.
“Chaotic start”
CPE chief executive Janet Morrison said that community pharmacies have seen a “chaotic start to the NHS winter vaccination programme”, with staff “left to explain this year’s changes to vaccination eligibility to frustrated members of the public”.
“We are deeply concerned, but not surprised, to hear that some pharmacy owners will consider not providing this vital service in the future,” she added.
CPE has sought compensation because “pharmacies cannot continue to pay the price for problems that are entirely of someone else’s making”, Morrison said.
Read more: ‘No plans’ to roll out all adult NHS vaccines in pharmacies
The negotiator also said that NHSE has “taken a number of actions” at its request so far, including amending the wording on the NBS, highlighting the eligibility changes in messages to patients who booked appointments and issuing “NHS-branded communications materials” for pharmacies.
Meanwhile, NHSE last week (October 9) said it is “urging people to check they are still eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine before booking”.
“The NHS website sets out whether your age, health condition or medication means you are eligible and your GP practice or pharmacist will confirm this before giving you the vaccine,” it added.
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It comes after health minister Baroness Merron this month revealed that the DH “does not currently have plans” to enable community pharmacies to deliver all NHS adult vaccines.
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.
