NHS England and Improvement has made £3.2m available to community pharmacies in England to cover ‘reasonable additional costs’ from this year’s expanded flu programme.

The funding will be restricted to covering the costs of additional venue hire and associated costs, and additional fridges or mobile cold storage.

Pharmacies will not be able to claim for costs that are already funded through other routes, including PPE, additional staffing costs, syringes and sharps disposal, and advertising.

The extra funding has been made available in recognition of pharmacies having to adopt alternative and more costly delivery models in order to carry out the flu programme this year, NHS England said.

Eligibility

In order to be eligible for the funding, the pharmacy must have undertaken a minimum of 20 vaccinations at the venue hired.

The guidance document said that contractors can claim £200 for the hire of the venue, but where this costs less than £200, they can only claim up to the actual cost of the hired venue.

‘When claiming for the cost of venue hire for the first-time, contractors can additionally claim a one-off payment of £200 for cold storage,’ it said.

Community pharmacy contractors can make up to five claims for venue hire, but must provide receipts, it added.

The guidance also said that applications from pharmacies that can demonstrate joint working and collaborative delivery approaches with other local providers are encouraged.

In order to claim additional funding, pharmacies must seek pre-authorisation from their regional NHS England and NHS Improvement team. Claims for payments can then be made monthly via the Manage Your Service platform.