The NHS adult influenza vaccination programme will begin in October this year instead of on its usual September start date, NHS England (NHSE) has confirmed to The Pharmacist.

An NHS spokesperson said that this was in order to ‘maximise protection for patients right across the winter months when it is typically colder, and viruses are more likely to spread with people spending more time indoors’.

They added that the NHS was ‘working to ensure a growing number of vaccine sites across England offer both flu and covid-19 vaccines in the same visit, to make it as convenient as possible for people to get life-saving protection from both viruses ahead of winter’.

But Community Pharmacy England told The Pharmacist that it had not had any final decision communicated to it. The negotiator said that it was 'continuing to press for common sense to prevail' and for the service to start from September.

The flu vaccination service usually begins on 1 September. But the flu vaccination service specification, published on Friday 4 August, gave NHSE the power to set a delayed start for the service.

The community pharmacy sector has this week spoken out against a potential delay, asking the government and NHS England not to action any advice about starting flu vaccination later than 1 September ‘because of the overriding concern about the lack of prior notice given to providers’.

Community Pharmacy England said earlier this week that a delay would bring ‘a very real risk that pharmacy owners and their teams will be unable to manage their workload this winter or recoup the investment they have made sourcing vaccines in good faith’.

It added: ‘This is a completely unacceptable – and entirely avoidable – situation for a commissioner to put pharmacies, or indeed any service providers, in.’

And National Pharmacy Association (NPA) chair Nick Kaye said that it 'makes no sense' to 'throw a previously successful NHS scheme into confusion by delaying the start date'.

Before the delay was confirmed, he said: 'If this change goes ahead, thousands of appointments will have to be cancelled and pre-ordered stock will go to waste.

'Temporary staff who have been appointed to help deliver the service in September will need to be stood down.’

Dr Nick Thayer, head of policy at the Company Chemists’ Association said in a statement yesterday that it was ‘too late to make fundamental changes to the flu programme’.

He said: ‘It risks vaccine uptake, whilst putting intolerable pressure on already stretched pharmacies and pharmacy teams.’

The move to an October start date was also mooted by our sister publication Management in Practice earlier today.