Community pharmacy teams have delivered more than one million flu vaccines during 2017/18, according to new data.

Pharmacy teams administered almost 1.2 million flu vaccines between 1 September 2017 and 31 March 2018 – almost a quarter of a million more than the previous year – according to figures from data companies PharmaOutcomes, Sonar Informatics and Healthi.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) argued that the total number of flu vaccinations is likely to be higher, as ‘some pharmacy teams have not used the electronic systems to record administration of vaccines’.

‘Helping NHS cope with winter’

PSNC director of NHS services Alastair Buxton said that by providing such a successful flu vaccination service, pharmacy teams ‘have played an important part in helping patients and the NHS to cope with the particularly challenging winter’.

He continued: ‘This is a fantastic result by community pharmacy teams and it proves their dedication and commitment to provide the best possible service to their patients.

‘Thanks go to all community pharmacy contractors and their teams, and Local Pharmaceutical Committees (LPCs) for working so hard to make this service a success.

‘The results show that more and more patients are valuing the convenience and accessibility of being able to get a flu vaccination in their local community pharmacy.’

Extra funding

In February, NHS England announced that pharmacists would receive extra funding to support the use of a new adjuvanted trivalent influenza vaccine (aTIV) for different patients next winter.

The announcement came after pharmacy minister Steve Brine confirmed in January that the pharmacy flu vaccination service would run again in 2018/19.