MPs have urged the government to make “far better use” of pharmacies to tackle falling vaccination rates - and “get the evidence” that shows pharmacies help to improve uptake.
In a Westminster debate on vaccination rates on September 3, Labour MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip Danny Beales called for “better use of our community pharmacy network” when it comes to increasing vaccine coverage.
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And Labour MP for Chelsea and Fulham Ben Coleman said “officials” had told the Health and Social Care Committee (HSCC) that they do not want to use pharmacies for childhood vaccination because “they still do not know whether the evidence supports it”.
“The obvious answer is to get the evidence,” he said.
“What are the government doing to get the evidence? Will they get it by commissioning a proper evaluation of the use of pharmacies for routine MMR vaccination, with a clear deadline?”
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Coleman also asked new pharmacy minister Diana Johnson whether she will ensure the NHS “stops prevaricating” and “acts before more children pay the price”.
Johnson told her peers that the government has “been expanding the use of community pharmacies” in vaccination programmes and is “evaluating that”.
But Beales said rollout of pharmacy-delivered vaccines has been “slow”, and it is “unclear when national rollout will be possible”.
Pilots
During the debate, Coleman referred to his time serving as a councillor on the North West London integrated care board, where he said he pushed for MMR vaccinations to be delivered through pharmacies in 2024.
“All families go to pharmacies, so it seemed an obvious thing to do, but I was told that it was simply too complicated,” he said.
“I pushed a bit, and I got two pharmacies into a sort-of project.”
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Coleman also questioned why a pharmacy MMR pilot across 43 sites in the north west of England, also launched in 2024, had not been continued.
“I was told that it had worked as a campaign, but making it routine was ‘a different question’. I asked whether that question was even being assessed, and it clearly was not,” he said.
Read more: No improvement on coverage, says RSV vaccine pharmacy pilot review
Coleman said he “is not saying that pharmacies are silver bullets”, but stressed that “schools, GPs and pharmacies” should all be used to improve childhood vaccination rates, particularly among school-age children.
“We should use every available route to help our children and their families,” he added.
“There is no target”
Labour MP for Cannock Chase Josh Newbury told MPs “we know” vaccination programmes delivered “strictly through GP practices see up to 27% lower uptake in deprived areas”.
But this decreases to “as little as 7%” in “accessible pharmacy, community and neighbourhood programmes”, he added.
And Beales said shared digital records that can be accessed at a “GP appointment, pharmacy check-in, health visit or hospital appointment” should be used to inform healthcare professionals as to whether the patient is missing a vaccination.
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He said vaccines given in community pharmacies “often fail to make their way back to the child’s GP surgery because the systems do not talk to each other”.
He also called for vaccination systems to have “adequate resourcing, accurate data and explicit accountability for meeting targets”, but said there is currently “none of that”.
Beales told MPs that the vaccination system has been “sleepwalking into a crisis”, with vaccine coverage dropping below the 95% recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the UK “shockingly” losing its measles elimination status.
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“My colleagues and I on the HSCC held a short inquiry into vaccination rates earlier this year, and we were, to be frank, shocked by the apparent complacency of leading NHS officials,” he said.
“There was no understanding of when it is hoped rates will return to WHO levels, or of whether and when our elimination status will be reached again. There is no target.”
Vaccine programmes
Johnson responded that the government is acting on “four fronts” when it comes to improving vaccination coverage: “clearer NHS organisation, more flexible services, better public information and joined-up digital records”.
She stressed that the government has “not dropped vaccination targets”.
And she said that rebuilding vaccine coverage “will take sustained effort” but the government “will monitor progress closely and take further action wherever it is needed”.
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It comes after the UK Health Security Agency last month revealed that 970 measles cases have already been confirmed in 2026, surpassing the 960 cases confirmed in 2025.
And it follows the National Pharmacy Association in July saying it “makes sense” to use pharmacies for catch-up vaccinations, as the NHS called for parents to have their children vaccinated with the new “four-in-one” MMR/V jab.
