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Pharmacies could work with local governments to improve vaccination uptake in rural areas, the national membership body for local authorities in England has advised.
In a guide for local councils, published on 25 July 2026, the Local Government Association (LGA) suggested that pharmacy closures may be affecting patients’ access to vaccinations.
“In rural areas, pharmacy closures and the prevalence of single-handed or small GP practices can leave genuine gaps in coverage that do not exist in urban settings, particularly for shingles, RSV [respiratory syncytial virus] and pneumococcal programmes where the primary care offer is the main delivery route,” it said.
“Where pharmacies have closed or GP practices are under significant pressure, councils should be asking what the alternative delivery model is and who is accountable for reaching residents who can no longer access the standard offer.”
The guide also recommended that councils in rural areas should make sure that any equity analysis conducted is not only sensitive to deprivation and ethnicity but geography as well. Local plans must also explicitly address the additional cost and complexity of outreach to dispersed populations, it continued.
A spokesperson for the LGA told The Pharmaceutical Journal on 28 July 2026: “There is a role for community pharmacies to engage proactively with local directors of public health to support with vaccination delivery and uptake.
“Many community pharmacies are already doing so and setting out what they can deliver on reach, equity of access and outcomes, with local data.”
In the past five years, around 900 bricks-and-mortar pharmacies in England have closed, according to NHS Business Services Authority data. The results of a data analysis conducted by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) in 2025 found that 1,600 pharmacies have reduced services and opening hours since 2022.
In February 2026, the NPA wrote to then health secretary Wes Streeting to highlight pharmacy closures that “disproportionately affected patients in deprived communities with high health needs and those in isolated rural communities”.
Alastair Buxton, director of NHS services at Community Pharmacy England, commented: “The LGA note particular issues in vaccine provision in some areas, referencing access to shingles, RSV and pneumococcal vaccines. Only a small number of pharmacies are commissioned to provide those vaccines as part of the NHS programme, so we suggest commissioning those programmes from pharmacies in less well served areas would be a way to address the identified gaps in provision.”
He also suggested that national enhanced services “can support ICBs [integrated care boards] to easily commission community pharmacies to help address their populations’ unmet vaccination needs”.
Just one national enhanced service currently exists, which allows local commissioners to involve community pharmacies in RSV and pertussis vaccinations based on nationally agreed specifications. Pharmacies can also opt to participate in national advanced services for COVID-19, flu and — as of 12 June 2026 — meningitis B.
Henry Gregg, chief executive of the NPA, noted: “There are big disparities in uptake for certain vaccines between different local authority areas.”
He continued that the NPA would “support efforts to provide more granular ward-level data to help promote better understanding in local areas”.
Gregg added: “[The government] should provide sustained long-term uplifts to bring an end to pharmacy closures.
“Despite these pressures… pharmacies are still the most accessible health service to many patients and are well placed to provide vaccinations on people’s doorsteps, particularly in those communities with lower levels of uptake [or] offsite in community facilities or in patients’ homes.
“Pharmacies know their patients well and can help to tackle vaccine hesitancy and scepticism among their communities.”
Malcolm Harrison, chief executive of the Company Chemists’ Association, said: “We recognise that there are some isolated rural areas where there is a significantly reduced level of pharmaceutical coverage. This is often due to dispersed populations and complex geographies, coupled with a decade of underfunding of the national contractual framework.
“However, community pharmacy has a strong track record of improving access to vaccinations and the network is well placed to do even more. It is important that systems recognise the full potential of the pharmacy network and use it to make vaccinations as accessible and convenient as possible, in order to boost uptake.
“However, we recognise that where it is no longer viable for community pharmacies to operate, alternative provision may be required.”
