The community pharmacy network must be properly funded and included in planning to improve any future response to a pandemic, the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has said.

This comes as the first report of the Covid-19 inquiry found that the UK ‘lacked resilience’ going into the pandemic, with health services under pressure and high levels of ill-health.

The NPA and the Company Chemists' Association have also called for pharmacies to be involved in any pandemic vaccination strategy 'from the outset', as a pandemic planning document released by NHS England (NHSE) this week suggested that community pharmacy may be 'stood up' to deliver vaccination services.

Covid-19 inquiry: overstretched public services and poor health made UK 'more vulnerable'

Baroness Heather Hallett, chair of the Covid-19 inquiry, noted in her first report, published this week, that going into the pandemic the UK ‘lacked resilience’ with a slowdown in health improvement and widening health inequalities.

‘High pre-existing levels of heart disease, diabetes, respiratory illness and obesity, and general levels of ill-health and health inequalities, meant that the UK was more vulnerable,’ the report said.

In addition, public services, particularly health and social care, ‘were running close to, if not beyond, capacity in normal times’.

Moreover, repeated pandemic exercises had identified a lack of PPE, provision for contact tracing and testing and NHS surge capacity as issues, the report said.

It was vital that lessons were learned, the inquiry found, because it is not a question of ‘if’ another pandemic will strike but ‘when’ and the next one will potentially happen in the near to medium future and be even more transmissible and lethal.

NPA: Fully funded pharmacy network vital to support pandemic planning

Responding to the report, NPA chair Nick Kaye said it was clear from the inquiry 'that we need to bring the pharmacy network into planning for any pandemic so it can do what it does best and provide community health care right on people’s doorsteps along with maintaining the core medicine supply and urgent care services.

'During the Covid pandemic, pharmacies gave millions of Covid jabs and saved countless lives as a result. They were open when many parts of the health system were forced to close.

'We need a health system where pandemic preparations are always on, and a robust, properly funded  community pharmacy network is vital to support community testing and vaccination,' he said.

Community pharmacy may 'stand-up' to support pandemic vaccination in future

A pandemic planning document, published by the government this week, suggested that a pandemic specific vaccine (PSV) will be available four to six months after a pandemic agent is identified.

The vaccine 'will be delivered through primary care and occupational health (for NHS workers) and may be augmented by mass vaccinations services, the stand-up of community pharmacy and vaccination services, and extraordinary arrangements in primary care', the document said.

CCA: pandemic vaccination success depends on community pharmacy involvement 'from outset'

But CCA chief executive Malcolm Harrison told The Pharmacist that any pandemic-specific vaccine rollout 'can only be successful if community pharmacy plays a role from the outset'.

'By the end of 2023, 40m Covid-19 vaccinations had been administered by community pharmacy, a quarter of the entire programme. This is despite community pharmacy not being included in the initial plans for the programme,' he noted.

And he highlighted that the wide spread of the community pharmacy network, with more pharmacies located in areas of higher deprivation, 'pharmacies are also crucial to reaching harder-to-reach communities'.

'The CCA believes that community pharmacy can, in time, become the natural home for all vaccinations,' Mr Harrison added.

Parts of this article first appeared in our sister title Pulse.