There are MPs in Westminster advocating for community pharmacy funding, Dr Beccy Cooper MP told the sector at an event hosted by the Pharmacy Vaccinations Development Group this week.

The event set out how community pharmacies could increase vaccination uptake and help the NHS reach those it had historically struggled to.

And it accompanied the launch of a report that called for all adult NHS vaccines to be commissioned through the sector.

Speaking at the event, Dr Cooper, a public health doctor and Labour MP for Worthing West, told attendees that ‘without the understanding around what community pharmacies can do and approaches like Pharmacy First', the government was not going to be able to deliver on its incoming 10-year plan for the NHS.

She said that community pharmacies were 'absolutely integral' to moving care from hospital to community and from treatment to prevention.

'I frequently tell my bosses, my secretary of state, that, and they understand that too,' she told event attendees.

'Driving vaccination uptake is absolutely crucial to prevention,' Dr Cooper added.

She suggested that the people who might not access a GP but do access community pharmacies are historically the people the NHS has not served well, and told the sector: 'You are part of that solution’.

‘I know there are ongoing conversations around funding… I really hope that you know that there are advocates here in Westminster for you that think that actually, of course, there's a limited funding envelope, but we need to make sure, if we're serious about moving to prevention, that we absolutely invest in that as well as making sure that we are doing the right thing in acute settings as well,' Dr Cooper added.

CCA chief executive Malcolm Harrison | Image credit Anthony Brown

Malcolm Harrison, chief executive of the Company Chemists' Association (CCA), which co-sponsored the event, said: 'We believe the community pharmacy is easily capable of delivering a wide range of NHS, vaccinations, including pneumonia, shingles, meningitis, RSV and other routine childhood vaccinations. Together, we think this would free up around 10 million GP appointments every year.'

He added: 'I think it's really important as well to recognise that vaccine uptake is not only important for preventing ill health and sickness, but also it's integral to the national economic growth, which I know is another key mission of this government. Every year, seasonal influenza accounts of 4.8 million lost working days across the UK. And if there's something we can do about that, that's got to be a good thing.'

100+ vaccines in development 'worthless' without confidence in current programme

Also speaking at the event, Kirsten Walters, director of health and wellbeing for the London Borough of Camden, suggested that a 'neighbourhood' model of care could be an 'opportunity for community pharmacy to be really at the centre of how we're thinking about preventative health care'.

She added: 'Vaccination delivery, at the moment, does work for most people, but we have seen increasingly populations that need different ways, more flexible ways, more accessible ways of accessing their preventative healthcare.’

And she suggested that there was a need to make the existing preventative offer 'more efficient and more effective and more equitable'.

'We're seeing such significant advances in vaccine technology, which has huge opportunity for patients. But we're also seeing, I think, the risk of vaccine preventable disease increase... if we're not able to build confidence in the current vaccination programs that we have, improving coverage and improving equity, then we're not able to assist and be able to harm some of those potential benefits.'

Kirsten Walters | Image credit Anthony Brown

'Community pharmacies should be considered in making vaccines more accessible and more convenient'

The report from the CCA highlighted that community pharmacies could increase access for those without private transport, in deprived areas, or enable a conversation about vaccine confidence in the course of delivering other services.

Dr Charlie Weller, head of prevention, infectious disease at the Wellcome Trust, also noted that 'having a licensed vaccine isn't enough'.

'We need the vaccines to get to the people, and it's not until a vaccine is given that we really see that potential, the protection and the impact,' she said.

And she said the CCA's report 'shows how community pharmacies should be considered in making vaccines more accessible and more convenient'.

Charlie Weller | Image credit Anthony Brown

'Success means reaching those we have historically not served well'

Also speaking at the event, Steve Russell, national director for vaccinations and screening at NHS England, described vaccination as 'a team sport'.

'While vaccination programmes in England are good quality, there is lots more that we can do,' he said.

While he said he wasn't convinced that there was necessarily 'a large group of people who are anti-vaccination', he did say that vaccine fatigue 'is a real thing', and increasing uptake needed to be looked at 'through the lens of confidence, complacency and convenience’.

'The test of this strategy is going to be in X years time, whether we've managed to reach the people that we have historically not served well,' he said.

And he said that the NHS should not seek to replicate existing local networks through which care could be delivered.

'There are some facilities that people in local communities trust and will go to. Honestly, that is where we should be providing services. That is where trusted people from local communities can be really good ambassadors building confidence,' he said.

'We know that there has to be underpinned by digital platforms, information sharing, commissioning frameworks and so on,' he acknowledged.

And he said NHS England would complete work later this year on an interface to connect different systems where vaccinations are currently recorded.

Steve Russell | Image credit Anthony Brown

The Pharmacy Vaccinations Development Group is sponsored by CSL Seqiris, GSK, Pfizer UK and Viatris, and includes representatives from AAH, Asda, Alliance Healthcare, Boots, GPhC, the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), Numark, Pharmacy2U, Phoenix Medical, Rowlands Pharmacy, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Superdrug, Tesco, and Well.