NI pharmacies ‘well placed’ to deliver Covid-19 vaccine

Gerard Greene, the head of Community Pharmacy NI, said more than 300 local pharmacies here are already well placed to “take some of the pressure off” the health service by rolling out the vaccine.

He was speaking to the News Letter after the Department of Health at Stormont confirmed its intention to lean on the sector as the vaccination programme begins to “scale up”.

While health authorities in Northern Ireland seem determined to press ahead with their plans to include local chemists in the roll-out, the picture in other parts of the UK is less clear.

In England, the government has faced criticism that only a small number of pharmacies – just over 200 from a total of around 11,000 – have been included in the roll-out plans.

Mr Greene said: “About 400 community pharmacies are involved in the Department of Health’s flu vaccine programme, so we have established the route of the community pharmacy for vaccination services.

“The minister (Robin Swann) and the Department of Health officials have recognised that community pharmacies have a unique role to play in the coronavirus vaccination programme.

“The authorisation of the Oxford/Astra Zeneca vaccine , which doesn’t have the storage requirements [of other vaccines], means community pharmacies are ideally placed to really play a role now in rapidly vaccinating members of the population.”

He added: “We can all see the pressures that are in the health service at the minute and we can take some of that pressure off.

“Pharmacies have been the open door of healthcare accessibility throughout the pandemic. The accessibility of community pharmacies mean people will be able to either arrange or call into their local pharmacy so that we can reach more of the population.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Health said: “Community pharmacies in Northern Ireland will have an important part to play in the delivery of the Covid-19 vaccination programme in the coming weeks and months.

“The skills of our highly trained community pharmacy teams have already been instrumental in supporting the delivery of this year’s seasonal flu vaccination programme with over 14,000 vaccines administered to health and social care workers across Northern Ireland.

“The Covid-19 vaccination programme will be scaled up significantly and rapidly over the coming weeks as more vaccines become available, and the department is currently working with the Health and Social Care Board and Community Pharmacy Northern Ireland to put plans in place for community pharmacies to play a full and active part in meeting the major public health challenge of our time.”