Government accused of ignoring ‘army’ of pharmacies as possible Covid vaccine sites

'We've been telling the NHS that we're ready, willing and desperate to help,' industry leader says

The government has been accused of ignoring an ‘army of trained vaccinators who are ready, willing and able to play their part’ (Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)

The government has been accused of ignoring offers from the UK’s “army” of pharmacies to provide much-needed help with its coronavirus vaccination drive. 

Boris Johnson told the nation on Tuesday evening he hopes everyone in the top four priority groups – care home residents and staff, health workers, the over-70s and the clinically vulnerable – will have received their first jab by mid February, amounting to some 13 million people.

According to vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi, 1.3 million people have received a jab since the rollout began on 8 December.

While the government has so far largely been reliant on GPs, nurses and retired volunteers, it is estimated that the nation’s 11,000 pharmacies could feasibly dole out 1.3 million doses per week and could often be more accessible than many current centres.

But their offers of help have been met with “a de facto silence”, according to Simon Dukes, chief of the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, who has been representing high street pharmacies during talks with the government.

“Rather than scrabbling around trying to find retired GPs and nurses and anyone who has possibly dated skills, you've got an army of thousands of pharmacists up and down the country who administer the flu jab every winter,” he told The Daily Telegraph.

“We've been telling the NHS that we're ready, willing and desperate to help. But we've been met by a de facto silence.”

On Wednesday morning, Mr Zahawi insisted on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that “community pharmacies are already very much involved”.

But minutes earlier, Royal Pharmaceutical Society president Sandra Gidley told the programme that while some larger pharmacies were indeed involved in the government’s plans, they had to be able to guarantee they could deliver at least 950 doses per day to qualify. 

While that was necessary for the Pfizer vaccine – which is more complex to handle, store and transport – Ms Gidley said the arrival of the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab meant it could be administered by much smaller units.

“We are already used to delivering the flu vaccine. You have got an army of trained vaccinators who are ready, willing and able to play their part,” Ms Gidley said.

“With the AstraZeneca vaccine there is no reason why that could not be delivered through community pharmacies.

“There are over 11,000 pharmacies. If each of those does 20 a day that is 1.3 million a week extra vaccines that can be provided, very often to those who are hardest to reach.

“Why would any government not want to do that?”

Mr Dukes added: “I think if you ask Mrs Jones or Mrs Patel, who has to catch perhaps two buses to get there to have her jab and then come back again, risking catching this disease on the way, I think she'd much rather go to her local Boots or an independent pharmacy to get it done there. It's the ability to walk in from the street, as opposed to travelling many miles.”

The National Pharmacy Association also urged the government and NHS to involve more pharmacies, which it said were “well equipped to start immediately”, with chair Andrew Lane saying: “We are bound to ask, what on earth is stopping the NHS from mobilising more pharmacies for this vital task? 

“Pharmacists want to help, they are already trained for giving vaccines, and people are crying out for convenient local access to the vaccine. It’s surely a no-brainer that pharmacies should be supported to take part in this urgent national effort.”

Speaking on Today, Mr Zahawi appeared to pledge to involve community pharmacies, but did not commit to a timeframe or say whether the full network would be called upon.

“You’re quite right to challenge us on this,” he said. “There are two issues here. One, you want to get more efficiency and more throughput at the sites you already have … and GPs have been excellent at delivering the early batches of the vaccine [and] very good at getting into the care home sector as well.

“So you want to increase the throughput, and then you add more sites as you get more production coming through. And we will do both. 

“We will make sure that community pharmacies and the independent sector are involved and that we deliver what I think is a credible plan that the NHS has put together to hit that target of 13 million vaccinations ... by mid-February.”

Meanwhile, there are reports that even willing GP surgeries have been left waiting for vaccine doses.

Dr Rosemary Leonard, a GP in south London, tweeted on Tuesday that her group of practices had been initially told their first delivery would arrive on 28 December, but now expect to receive them by 13 January at the earliest.

GP Simon Bradley replied reporting similar delays at his primary care network in Avon.

“We are raring to go, but have no vaccines. WHY?” said Dr Leonard, suggesting a “post code lottery” for vaccines may have emerged and concluding: “There must be central supply issues – would be good to be given a truthful explanation.”

Public Health England has been contacted for comment.

Additional reporting by PA