Every UK pharmacy has been offered a free measles patient group direction (PGD), allowing them to offer private measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccines.

Training provider PharmaDoctor is allowing community pharmacists to pre-order its measles e-tool and integrated PMR package for free to ‘fight against the alarming trend’ of increasing measles cases in the UK, it told The Pharmacist on Sunday (12 May).

Pharmacists will be able to start using the PGD and e-tool in June, PharmaDoctor said.

The company said it was moved to offer the training tool for free following rising cases of measles in the UK, with Public Health England reporting 966 confirmed cases of the disease in England alone during 2018. This is four times as many cases in 2017, with most cases affecting those aged over 15 years.

The tool guides pharmacists though a consultation with patients wanting the vaccine, determining their eligibility for it. The PGD then gives the pharmacist the legal ability to give the patient the vaccine.

PharmaDoctor medical director Dr Colin Davidson said: ‘Measles can kill, so the rise in prevalence of this vaccine preventable disease is very worrying.

‘PharmaDoctor hopes that our offer to pharmacies will support them to communicate the risks of measles to those who may not have received the MMR vaccine, then encourage them to take up the offer of vaccination.’