Independent community pharmacies across the UK will begin offering private Covid vaccinations within weeks, the chief executive officer of services provider Pharmadoctor has told The Pharmacist.

For pharmacies that sign up for Pharmadoctor’s a patient group direction (PGD) package from today, the Nuvaxovid XBB.1.5 dispersion for injection vaccines will be available ‘in a few weeks time’, Graham Thoms told The Pharmacist today.

And from this weekend, patients will be able to pre-book an appointment with pharmacies using the Pharmadoctor service through a patient website.

The Pharmadoctor package will include consultation software and integrated PGDs for all licensed private Covid vaccines as they become available, the company said.

And the jabs will cost patients £45, Pharmadoctor added.

Vaccine stock will be available by 1 April and the package will be available at half-price – £249.00 + VAT rather than the regular price of £499.00 – for pharmacies that sign up by 31 March.

To be able to run the service, pharmacists must have completed training covering all practical skills required to vaccinate adults, children and infants, adverse reactions including anaphylaxis and basic life support for all ages.

And they must submit online declarations confirming their competency and sign relevant PGD documents, before being authorised by Pharmadoctor’s medical team.

Superintendent pharmacist Mayhar Nickko-Amiry, owner of the Dears Pharmacy and Travel Clinic Group in Scotland, said that patients ask ‘all the time’ when private Covid jabs will be available.

‘We started taking their details with the promise that we’d be in touch when the vaccination service is available,’ he said.

And he added that the pharmacy team was now ‘delighted’ to be able to get back in touch with patients and invite them to receive a private Covid vaccination.

The Pharmadoctor eTool will also be used to gather local and national pictures of private and Covid vaccinations, which can be shared (patient anonymised) with public health organisations, Pharmadoctor’s founder and digital director Joaquim Pereira said.

Pharmadoctor described its package as ‘the UK’s first’ private covid vaccination service.

The Pharmacist has approached other pharmacy groups to find out where else the service may be offered.

A spokesperson for multiple Superdrug told The Pharmacist that it was interested in offering a private Covid vaccination.

They added that Superdrug was currently gathering information about whether it would be a viable option and was in discussions with suppliers about ‘potentially’ offering a private covid vaccination service ‘this year’.

And a spokesperson for Boots told The Pharmacist that the multiple 'would like to offer private Covid vaccinations' and was 'looking into how this might be possible'.