Northampton pharmacist: We will be enlisted to help with coronavirus vaccination roll-out when time is right

A Northampton pharmacist has faith they will be enlisted to help with the coronavirus vaccination roll-out when the time is right.

Fewer than 200 pharmacy-led clinics, with none in Northamptonshire, are currently administering the jab with 'logistical difficulties' stopping more from being involved, according to vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi.

Abington Pharmacy superintendent David Ashton said pharmacists have been entrusted to 'man the fort' for primary care during the Covid-19 pandemic and will be called upon as soon as possible.

"I stand ready to be utilised into the Covid vaccination program at a moment's notice if the higher powers decide that my time will be best spent in that endeavour," he said.

"A greater availability of vaccines in the supply chain will at some stage shift the priority placed on us.

"As and when this happens, our industry has the capacity to pull in more resources, because the fort will still have to be manned.

"My personal opinion is that if we were to take up vaccination services right now, it would be because we have more spare capacity than our secondary care colleagues do in their current situation."

The Chronicle & Echo and its sister papers are campaigning for pharmacists to used to their full potential after being initially snubbed from the vaccination programme.

Pharmacies have the potential to deliver approximately 10-15 million doses of the vaccine nationally over a six-to-eight week period.

While Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called on all over-70s yet to have the jab to get in touch with the NHS to organise it.

Mr Zahawi told a webinar this week that pharmacies would part of the next phase of the inoculation roll-out but sites are still limited to those who can administer at least 1,000 jabs a week.

Mr Ashton believes pharmacies can help with the demand for vaccinations and reach more people but does not feel like they have been shunned by the government.

"I am confident that were the stock available, the government and NHS England would jump at the chance to fill my fridge with vaccines and instruct me who to administer it to," he said.

"I do not feel that we have been shunned, but more that the front-line services that pharmacy is currently providing is of great value to the NHS during the pandemic.

"They have tasked the important job of vaccinating to other professionals and some highly capable technical/administrative staff who can work together to administer the total available supply."

Mr Ashton said they are working hard to keep up the normal services and protect people from the many risks other than coronavirus that all still exist while the NHS focuses on vaccinations.

He has been doing more consultations recently as well as volunteering to give out jabs at a GP-led clinic, which he considers his duty, while all pharmacy staff have had their own inoculations.

Nevertheless, the pharmacist hopes the community facilities will be used soon as the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee and Pharmacists' Defence Association have been making clear to ministers.

He said: "The real question is how many hospital appointments would then be able to go ahead rather than be postponed?

"Community pharmacy would have to make a significant enough difference to make it worthwhile to undergo the process of change.

"Collectively, we all have to use the available resources responsibly if we are to make the most difference, and ultimately more lives will be saved if our leaders make good choices.

"They have far more data to work with than any other agency, and nobody should be more qualified than they and their advisers are as to how that data should be interpreted.

"I believe the decision to vaccinate from community pharmacies would likely be popular regardless, as hospitals are often less accessible and further to travel to than we are."