Rowlands Pharmacy managing director Nigel Swift has become the latest leading pharmacy figure to criticise NHS England over its poor handling of this autumn’s flu and Covid vaccination programme by accusing it of lacking respect and understanding of community pharmacy.

Swift (pictured) said NHSE‘s failure to plan the service’s roll-out properly proved it had failed to learn the lessons of the Covid pandemic and he also claimed the government treated the sector like a “Cinderella service” after the start date went from September 1 to October then September 11. 

“Community pharmacies play a critical role ensuring those eligible can easily get their free NHS flu and Covid vaccinations. Providing that important service takes time for pharmacy colleagues to prepare and book people in for their appointment,” he said.

“Only a few weeks ago, NHSE told us that the vaccination programme would be delayed until October and pharmacies started to plan on that basis and inform patients. Now, NHSE has decided to bring forward the programme to begin on 11 September. Pharmacy advised an earlier start, but NHSE chose delay instead and has now U-turned creating problems that could so easily have been avoided.”

Swift questioned why NHSE had failed to sufficiently prepare for the service and insisted its U-turns had caused confusion for patients and disrupted pharmacies’ provision of other patient services. He also claimed NHSE had failed to consult community pharmacy when planning the service which was brought forward to September 11 after the emergence of the Covid variant BA.2.86.

“Health Ministers in England state they want to make greater use of community pharmacy. That’s what Numark has been advocating for years. However, that requires a partnership approach planning together service delivery within achievable timescales,” he said.

Questioning whether the “last-minute shambles” was an attempt by NHSE “to gain media headlines that they are ‘getting ahead of the game,’” Swift added: “Simply dumping last minute demands on an already overstretched pharmacy sector is impracticable and frankly unacceptable. NHSE’s ‘do it tomorrow’ demands show a lack of respect for, or understanding of, community pharmacy as the third pillar of patient access to NHS care services.

“It is worrying that ministers and NHSE officials appear not to understand the logistics involved in delivering successfully a flu vaccination programme through community pharmacy.”

An NHSE spokesperson told Independent Community Pharmacist: "It was a government/UK Health Service Authority decision to bring the vaccine programmes forward based on the risk from the new variant."