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Open in new tab The Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK (APTUK) and the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) have today issued an open letter to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP, urging him to include pharmacy technicians on the list of healthcare professionals able to administer Covid-19 vaccinations under a patient group direction (PGD). This follows the Prime Minister’s televised address yesterday calling on members of the public to ‘get boosted now’ and the announcement that all adults will now be offered a booster jab by the New Year, bringing the target forward by one month.
Earlier this month, APTUK and the CCA issued a joint statement welcoming the Government’s reconfirmation of their intention to explore the inclusion of pharmacy technicians on the list of healthcare professionals able to administer vaccinations via a PGD.
Pharmacy technicians have played a vital role in setting up pharmacy-based vaccination centres across England this year. This simple change will allow technicians to do more whilst also helping to increase capacity in community pharmacy.
Liz Fider, President of APTUK said “Pharmacy Technicians as registered healthcare professionals are ready to support mass vaccination at scale. Enabling them to increase capacity in community pharmacies by providing additional vaccinators able to use their skills for optimum patient and community benefit. Legislation must be enabled to let the profession assist at this time of urgency. Our offer to support remains and we are committed to ensuring the profession is enabled”.
Malcolm Harrison, Chief Executive of the CCA said: “Community pharmacy stands ready to turbo-charge the rollout of the Covid-19 booster, having already delivered 15m vaccines so far and a record-breaking number of flu jabs this winter. The Government now needs to ensure that community pharmacy has the capacity and capability to do so. A small technical legal change such as this will help remove one more barrier to a successful booster programme. We remain committed to working with Government to ensure this happens”.