Covid-19 vaccine rollout could be boosted by Ashfield community pharmacies

Small and medium-sized pharmacies in Hucknall, Bulwell and rest of Ashfield could be utilised to speed up the coronavirus vaccination rollout, experts have said.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

Around 200 pharmacy sites in England including branches of High Street chain Boots are lined up to start delivering jabs to priority patient groups in the coming weeks.

But industry bodies have called on the Government to widen the pool to the thousands more community pharmacists across the UK who are ready and willing to play their part in vaccinating the nation.

Office for National Statistics figures show there are 20 pharmacies in Ashfield.

Pharmacies could be utilised to speed up the vaccination rolloutPharmacies could be utilised to speed up the vaccination rollout
Pharmacies could be utilised to speed up the vaccination rollout

They are among 750 pharmacies across the East Midlands region – a resource the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) says is going to waste.

Not every pharmacy would be equipped to administer coronavirus jabs – in the age of social distancing, very small premises that have low limits on the number of customers that can enter at one time may struggle.

But the RPS says a huge number of the more than 11,000 chemists across the UK could help and want to play their part – but they are currently outside the process.

In a letter to pharmacists in November, NHS England and NHS Improvement said ‘community pharmacy will have an important role to play in a potential Covid-19 vaccination programme’.

The letter set out criteria for sites to be considered as vaccination centres, which included a requirement that they can vaccinate at least 1,000 people per week.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you

Nancy Fielder, editor