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Flu vaccination providers have been invited by NHS England to give their views on the potential impact of centralising procurement of the vaccine.
The proposal forms part of NHS England’s vaccination strategy, published in December 2023, which seeks to improve the efficiency and responsiveness of vaccine supply.
Providers are invited to complete an online survey to give their thoughts on the benefits and challenges of a centralised procurement model, in addition to their views on the current model and how this supports delivery of the flu vaccination programme.
Currently, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) manages the procurement and supply of all other vaccines, including the children’s flu vaccine. If central procurement of the adult flu vaccine is adopted, the UKHSA would also purchase and supply this vaccine.
Community pharmacies currently procure their own supplies of vaccines and NHS England’s online survey seeks to understand the current arrangements that pharmacies have in place with vaccine manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors, as well as administrative workload and wastage.
The survey closes on 17 December 2024.
Commenting on the publication of the survey, Alastair Buxton, director of NHS services at Community Pharmacy England (CPE) said: “A potential move to central procurement of adult flu vaccines for NHS programmes would have pros and cons for pharmacy owners, which are dependent on the design of any distribution system for the vaccine.”
However, he added: “At this early stage in their consideration of whether to pursue central procurement, NHS England do not have a proposal to share on how vaccines could be distributed.
“The survey seeks a lot of data which pharmacy owners will likely consider to be commercially sensitive, such as pricing of vaccines, discounts achieved and percentage split between NHS and private vaccinations administered.
“We have provided frank feedback to NHS England on the questions they have posed in the survey, which noted that should pharmacy owners have time to complete the questionnaire, it is very unlikely many will be minded to share commercially sensitive data with NHS England.”
The 2024/2025 flu vaccination programme began on 1 September 2024 for pregnant women and children, and in October 2024 for other eligible categories.
Monthly data for the service, published by CPE, show that community pharmacies have so far provided almost 3.2 million flu vaccinations during the 2024/2025 programme, compared with 3.6 million vaccinations up to November of the 2023/2024 programme.
