Leeds chemist blasts 'arbitrary' vaccine targets which rule out many pharmacies' involvement

Amit Dhand, superintendent pharmacist at Headingley Pharmacy, said he did not register to join the rollout because Government rules meant he had to promise to vaccinate 1,000 people per week.

“That’s something like 16/17 an hour”, he said. “The numbers meant a lot of community pharmacies couldn’t have signed up to that.

“I think it’s very difficult to put arbitrary numbers on. Setting a target like that is very difficult.”

His comments come as our Shot in the Arm campaign, calling for the Govermment to recruit the nation’s 11,000-strong network of community pharmacies in the Covid-19 vaccine rollout, continues to gather pace.

A petition launched as part of the campaign has so far attracted 124,000 signatures - and counting.

Led by the Yorkshire Evening Post, along with sister titles from across JPI Media, including The Yorkshire Post, The Star and Sunderland Echo, it calls for everyone to have the ability to get a jab within 10 minutes of their home by using their local pharmacies.

Aaccording to the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC), pharmacies can currently get involved in the vaccine rollout by either providing staff to support GP or Primary Care Network vaccination sites or by providing a vaccination service at the pharmacy - however both scenarios would involve a requirement that the service is able to vaccinate a minimum of 1,000 people a week.

Mr Dhand said, despite desperately wanting to help in the vaccination rollout, he simply would not have been able to reach that target.

He said: “I don’t think there should be a target. If it was made available to have it at local pharmacies, I think the demand would be huge.”

Alastair Buxton, PSNC director of NHS services, told the Yorkshire Evening Post they have been in talks with the Government over the 1,000 a week target in a bid to enable more community pharmacies to get involved in the Covid-19 vaccine rollout.

He said “NHS community pharmacies would be ideal places for people to have their COVID-19 jabs – they have experience giving vaccinations and they are very convenient for local communities.

“PSNC, the national negotiator for all pharmacies, wants every pharmacy who would like to help give vaccinations to be able to.

“We are working on a plan for this, and this would include letting pharmacies sign up to give fewer than 1,000 vaccinations a week and for them to only offer the AstraZeneca vaccine.

“We need this plan to be rolled out as soon as possible to get NHS community pharmacies playing their part in this huge vaccination effort.”

Our Shot in the Arm campaign argues all pharmacies should be used as part of the vaccine programme as they are trusted, have the expertise and are local to every community.

According to a recent study commissioned by Numark - the UK’s largest community pharmacy membership organisation - 49 per cent of people living in Leeds cited convenience and ease as the most valued attributes of a local pharmacy and 80 per cent called them out as having already gone above and beyond during the pandemic so far.

A spokesman for Numark said there is a “strong army” of pharmacy teams waiting to help but said many would need funding support.

He said: “Community pharmacies continue to stand tall across Leeds despite many facing immense financial and operational pressures.

“There is a strong army of dedicated and clinically-able pharmacy teams out there for whom local communities rely on but nearly three-quarters of Numark members pharmacies admit they need more sustainable funding to meet continued demands on their services.”

To sign the Shot in the Arm petition click here.