BRITISH pharmacists are being warned that COVID-19 infection control measures could significantly reduce their capacity to support influenza vaccination campaigns this year.
Kensington, Chelsea and Westminister Local Pharmaceutical Committee CEO, Rekha Shah, told The Pharmaceutical Journal that community pharmacists may see their vaccination capacity slashed by 66% ahead of the Northern Hemisphere's 2020/21 flu season.
Shah said pharmacist immunisers were likely to have to change personal protective equipment, such as gloves and aprons, between patients, as well as disinfecting surfaces.
"[This] means our capacity might be reduced in terms of how many people we can vaccinate in a day, compared to what we were doing before," she said.
"Say you were going to do 50 - we're talking about one third of that [depending on Government requirements]."
Shah also warned a second wave of the virus could further hinder pharmacists' ability to immunise the community, despite a forecast increase in demand for the flu jab.
"Until we get more information about the service specification --- the expectations and the funding --- it is very, very difficult to tell our pharmacies what it is they need to start doing and ordering," she said.
Pharmaceutical Service Negotiation Committee CEO, Simon Dukes, said COVID-19 represented a challenge for the profession, particularly around the business model for vaccination services.
"We've got to think about our model and how we can vaccinate more at scale to make sure that we participate as fully as we can in a vaccination programme that will inevitably be larger than usual," he said.
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