Thousands of MenB vaccines will be released from NHS supply to “ease” the demand on pharmacies amid the meningitis outbreak in Kent, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has announced.
UKHSA said today that 20,000 jabs from NHS supply “will be made available to the private market to ease current demand experienced by pharmacies”.
It said the doses will “support continuity of private provision” and enable “up to 2,000 pharmacies to receive vaccines in the next 48 hours”.
Read more: Pharmacies face ‘unprecedented’ demand for meningitis jabs
It comes after health secretary West Streeting said it is “not necessary” for people to get private meningitis vaccinations.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast yesterday, Streeting said he can understand why “in some pharmacies, where people are buying privately in numbers they wouldn’t normally”, pharmacies have run out of vaccine stock “in one or two cases”.
But he stressed that there is “plenty of supply” for routine MenB vaccinations and for the targeted vaccination programme being rolled out in response to the outbreak, and that people “do not need to buy a vaccine privately”.
“Unlikely” to meet demand
Meanwhile, National Pharmacy Association (NPA) chair Olivier Picard said pharmacies “have been inundated with requests for MenB vaccines in recent days” and that “any additional supply is a positive step forward”.
But he said it is “unlikely this will meet current levels of demand, with pharmacies getting hundreds of thousands of patients seeking vaccination” amid the outbreak.
“Given this demand, pharmacies need support from health officials to help them identify those most in need on their waiting lists,” he added.
Read more: Pharmacy sector calls for meningitis jabs after outbreak
Picard previously warned that the “vast majority” of pharmacies across the country “have no stock currently available” to meet patients’ demand for meningitis vaccinations.
“Most pharmacies provide MenB vaccinations as a small-scale service, originally intended for patients who require it for travel or those who did not receive an NHS vaccine, and therefore do not carry significant amounts of excess stock,” he said.
He added that it is “clear there are gaps in the original national vaccination strategy” and that pharmacies “stand ready to help in any potential NHS vaccination campaign”.
Read more: Pharmacies signposting to measles vaccination amid outbreak
Meanwhile, the Independent Pharmacy Contractors Network (IPCN) announced that it is ready to help the government in “responding rapidly and effectively” to the situation in Kent.
In a statement shared this week, the organisation said its members are prepared to “rapidly establish pop-up vaccination clinics in identified outbreak zones” and “extend existing vaccination services”, including on weekends and evenings.
IPCN spokesman Ahsan Bhatti said that “with timely access to vaccine stock and the right commissioning framework”, pharmacies can “deploy quickly, reach those most at risk and relieve pressure on other parts of the NHS”.
Read more: NPA calls for pharmacy measles vaccinations amid outbreak
It comes after the NPA warned that pharmacies are facing “unprecedented” demand for meningitis vaccines in response to the outbreak.
A snap survey by the NPA revealed that 87% of pharmacies have seen “considerable rises in requests from worried parents for meningitis vaccinations, far exceeding supply available from wholesalers”.
