Pharmacy flu vaccinations start for 2025/26 with pregnant women

Community pharmacy teams can start vaccinating pregnant women from September 1 under the 2025/26 NHS adult flu vaccination service.

Vaccination of other eligible adults must not start until 1 October 2025. This includes people over 65 years, those aged 18-65 years in clinical risk groups, those in long-stay residential care homes, carers, close contacts of immunosuppressed individuals, and frontline workers in a social care setting without an employer led occupational health scheme.

The NHS will not pay for vaccinations administered outside of the announced and authorised dates for vaccination.

The main flu vaccination programme previously commenced on 1 September but last year, NHS England decided to delay the start due to evidence that flu vaccine’s effectiveness can wane over time in adults. This year, the same delay applies.

Related Article: Beyond the scales: reframing eating disorder recognition in primary care

Most of the vaccinations should be administered by the end of November for maximum protection during the winter.

Community Pharmacy England (CPE) said ‘pharmacy teams may want to explain to their patients about the later start to the programme’ so they have created posters which can be displayed in pharmacies.

From 1 October, pharmacists can also administer vaccinations to children aged two or three years under the pilot Childhood Flu Vaccination Service, commissioned by NHS England.

The government has also announced its plan to combat flu outbreaks by ‘removing red tape’, allowing doctors and pharmacists to prescribe flu medicines year-round to reduce winter pressures.

Until now, GPs and pharmacies had to be commissioned via a patient-specific direction to prescribe certain medicines, which led to delays and meant clinicians could prescribe some medicines and not others.

But the government said the reasons for the restrictions no longer apply and that removing them means clinicians can provide the right treatment at the right time to patients. This change will allow oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza) to be prescribed and dispensed outside the flu season.

These antivirals are recommended for treatment of those at highest risk of severe disease outside of the flu season. They are also recommended to prevent disease in specific settings such as care homes where confirmed cases of flu have occurred.

Last week, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) ‘refused’ to increase the £9.58 adult flu jab fee for pharmacists, which has remained the same for the past six seasons.

Related Article: Sharp rise in diabetes cases prompts call for better postnatal support

This is despite GP practices receiving £10.06 for every flu vaccination administered.

The decision was met with disappointment from CPE which said the price for pharmacies was ‘unacceptable’ given that ‘community pharmacists play an important part in the annual flu vaccination campaign, vaccinating millions of people’.

‘It is clear that costs for pharmacy owners have increased significantly over recent years and these should be reflected in the funding for the service,’ they added.

A DHSC spokesperson said in response: ‘Pharmacies are integral to the fabric of our communities, and we want them to play a bigger role as we shift care out of hospitals and into the community through our Plan for Change.

Related Article: Novo Nordisk launch new 7.2mg single-dose Wegovy pen

‘We have given an extra £617m to support the sector and provide patients with greater services closer to home.’

According to NHS England, the flu vaccine is estimated to have prevented around 100,000 people from being hospitalised in England last winter by helping protect those at risk from getting seriously ill, particularly during the colder months when people gather indoors and viruses spread.

Despite this, there were more than 300,000 hospital bed days taken up by patients with flu last winter – almost double the previous winter (175,062 in 2023-24) and close to 50% higher than the year before (216,120 in 2022-23) – adding pressure to NHS services.