ENGLISH pharmacists are seeking approval to allocate times where they can focus solely on the provision of influenza and COVID-19 vaccines, The Pharmaceutical Journal reports.
The proposal has been put to the National Health Service (NHS) England by the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC), in a effort to address pharmacy workload and staffing pressures, as the country battles with a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A PSNC spokesperson told the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's publication that provisions exist under the NHS pharmacy regulations to facilitate a temporary closure to enable pharmacists to administer immunisations, however, it requires NHS England and NHS Improvement to make a national announcement.
During the UK's initial lockdown period, a national "closed door allowance" was granted, as a way of managing the increased demands being placed on the community pharmacy sector during the pandemic.
The allowance was retained in some jurisdictions, with Community Pharmacy Wales Director of Contract Services, Judy Thomas, reporting pharmacies in the principality have been working behind closed doors for the first hour of each day, and for an hour at lunchtime.
"The feedback we have had from contractors is that this is currently sufficient to meet the workload pressures, though of course the vaccinations aren't delivered in this period," she said.
Meanwhile, in Scotland provisions under the Coronavirus Act 2020, have empowered health boards to commission pharmacies to provide NHS flu vaccines for the first time, with Community Pharmacy Scotland Policy and Development Pharmacists, Adam Osprey, saying the organisation was "engaged with Scottish Government colleagues on the matter of COVID vaccination".
"As the only healthcare setting still easily accessible to patients and the public across Scotland, the priority for the community pharmacy network is maintaining continuity of service delivery and medicines supply, so any arrangement would have to take this into consideration," he said.
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