“Community pharmacies can play a critical role in getting boosters into arms in the coming weeks, and in the future too.”
A St Albans pharmacy has recently started offering Covid-19 vaccinations at its premises after months of administrative delays prevented it and other pharmacies across the country from becoming vaccination centres sooner.
Verulam Pharmacy first applied to become a vaccination centre more than a year ago, in December 2020, only to be rejected with no reason given. After applying a second time in July 2021, the rejection given to the pharmacy said that the government had “enough capacity”.
After being made aware of this problem by the pharmacy, St Albans MP Daisy Cooper exposed nationwide low approval rates and long delays in December 2021 in a Parliamentary written question.
The answer to Daisy’s question, provided by the vaccines minister Maggie Throup, revealed that by the end of September 2021, fewer than one third of the 4,733 pharmacies in England that applied to take part in the booster vaccination programme were accepted. Of these, just 1,336 community pharmacy vaccination sites were actively providing the service as of 3rd December.
It also revealed that as of December 2021, on average pharmacies were having to wait more than six weeks for applications to be approved by NHS England.
Dixit Patel, Pharmacy Manager at Verulam Pharmacy, said: “I’m really pleased that we can now finally join in with helping the booster roll-out – and our walk-in sessions are already proving really popular.
“It was frustrating to have our applications to become a vaccination centre rejected, particularly when walk-in clinics in villages have seen big queues and GPs were roped into help, putting extra strain on local surgeries. The decisions on which pharmacies to approve, to become Covid vaccination centres, seemed completely arbitrary – some pharmacies that were granted centre status are smaller and have less capacity than Verulam Pharmacy.
“But regardless of size, all community pharmacies are extremely well-placed to offer vaccinations, and I’m glad that Daisy’s efforts have helped raise awareness of the delays and difficulties that many of us have been facing.”
Daisy Cooper MP said: “Community pharmacies can play a critical role in getting boosters into arms in the coming weeks, and in the future too.
“So it is staggering that some pharmacies applied several times to help provide booster jabs only to be rejected.
“Just under 25% of people eligible across Hertfordshire and west Essex have yet to have their booster vaccination, so it’s vital that every pharmacy that has applied in the past to become a vaccination centre is given an opportunity to take part in this critical national effort.”
Gareth Jones, Director of External Affairs at the National Pharmacy Association, which has its headquarters in St Albans, said: “Pharmacies have been central to the Covid vaccination programme. Our partnership with the NHS on vaccinations has protected many millions of people, and everyone from local NHS teams to the pharmacists and our brilliant volunteers have been working very hard.
“Many more pharmacies have offered to help but still await approval. While sensible steps have been taken to increase capacity in the current pharmacy sites, it would be a massive own-goal to overlook the many other pharmacies wanting to join this great national effort.”