Pharmacy Technicians could become eligible to administer flu and COVID-19 vaccines

Under new government proposals, pharmacy technicians could become eligible to administer influenza or COVID-19 vaccines safely. In addition to ensuring that the flu vaccination programme could be implemented, the proposals indicated that an increased workforce was needed to ensure that the COVID-19 vaccine could be safely administered as soon as it was available.

The government has also proposed expanding the workforce legally authorised to distribute vaccinations under the local authority and NHS occupational health schemes so that additional health care practitioners such as midwives, pharmacists, paramedics and physiotherapists can deliver the vaccinations in adjacent to nurses.

Clinical Director of Brentworth Primary Care Network, Graham Stretch, stated: “A lot of pharmacists feel a little bit threatened as they see it as being a key role, but the practical aspects of administering a vaccine is a procedural thing that anyone can be trained to do. We’re allowing our personal wish to keep our roles to cloud our judgement a bit, we need to be much more pragmatic.”