Community pharmacists based in England have logged administering over two and a half million flu vaccines

Community pharmacists based in England have logged administering over two and a half million flu vaccines, part of the NHS advanced service in 2020 to 2021, according to statistics by the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC).

This is in comparison with the one and a half million administered in 2019-2020.

However, pharmacy negotiators believe that the correct figure for 2020-2021 could be more alike three million as the IT systems’ data slightly undercounts the actual quantity of people who have been vaccinated in pharmacies.

The upsurge in flu vaccinations follows a development in the number of patients suitable for the vaccine in 2020-2021. As a result, community pharmacies ordered additional stocks of flu vaccine from centralised government supplies.

Lead for vaccinates at Pharmacy London, Rekha Shah, stated: “Community pharmacies had to pay for the stock upfront with the condition it was not returnable should they not use it all, which meant they could be out of pocket and so would need to order smaller amounts as needed. This resulted in community pharmacies unable to meet expectations of the public once the vaccination of the fifty to sixty-four cohort opened up. I know many pharmacies in London have excess stock that they had purchased from this additional DHSC-procured vaccine stock that has not been able to be used up, because it came so late or the expected numbers could not be vaccinated, and this has left them with a cost to their bottom line.”