Pharmacy bodies have encouraged the Government to urgently ‘accelerate plans’ to include pharmacy technicians on the list of healthcare professionals able to administer vaccinations under a patient group direction (PGD).

In an open letter, sent yesterday (13 December), the Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK and the Company Chemists’ Association called on the health secretary Sajid Javid to allow pharmacy technicians to administer the booster vaccines in light of the Government's new vaccine targets.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced over the weekend that all over 18s would be offered a booster Covid vaccination by the end of December.

The letter read: ‘This simple change will allow pharmacy technicians to do more whilst also helping to boost capacity in community pharmacy.’

It added: ‘Ensuring members of the public ‘get boosted now’ and all adults are offered a booster jab by the New Year will require a monumental national effort. Now is the time to ensure that outdated legislation is changed, and all barriers to meeting the Prime Minister’s ambitions are removed.’

This month, The Pharmacist reported that the Government was considering including pharmacy technicians on the list of healthcare professionals able to administer Covid-19 vaccinations under a PGD.

Responding to a tweet calling for legislative change to allow pharmacy technicians to provide Covid booster vaccines, MP Maria Caulfield, the pharmacy minister, confirmed the Government was currently ‘looking into this’.

The list of healthcare professionals who can currently supply and administer vaccines under a PGD includes pharmacists, but not technicians.

For the first time this year, trained pharmacy staff, including technicians, could take part in phases of the flu vaccination service. However, they could not complete an entire consultation.

Similarly, technicians in England have been able to administer the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine since January, however, not under a PGD.