NPA Board Member Olivier Picard (pictured) from Newdays Pharmacy runs the Marlow covid vaccination clinic which has administered tens of thousands of vaccines since starting
Independent pharmacies led the way in getting the nation vaccinated against covid, new data compiled by the National Pharmacy Association has revealed.
Research by the NPA and PharmData, who specialise in pharmaceutical analytics, show that from January to September 2021 independent community pharmacies, most of whom are NPA members, were the biggest deliverers of covid vaccines when compared to corporate-run pharmacy sites.
The PharmData figures which looked at 610 pharmacy sites around the country shows that 85 per cent (521) of them were independents. Over half of the top 100 covid vaccine deliverers were NPA members.
Data beyond September is not yet available.
NPA chief executive Mark Lyonette said: “These figures show us that flexible, locally engaged, entrepreneurial independent community pharmacies are making a huge contribution to the vaccine programme.
“Our members have been a shining example of going above and beyond in the most challenging of circumstances to provide millions of covid jabs, including boosters. Looking further forward, pharmacies will probably still be protecting people long after the mass vaccination centres have been wound down.”
Oliver Staunton, Director at PharmData said: “This analysis shows the power of numbers to tell stories about how community pharmacies are delivering for the nation. The data present a compelling picture of the great things pharmacies do.”
The data shows that the total number of covid jabs delivered by pharmacies up to September were 11.4 million.
As at January 2022, pharmacies across the whole sector had delivered 22 million covid jabs, including a third of all booster jabs.
PharmData note – Data is provided by the NHSBSA, HSC Business Services Organisation, NHS Wales & Information Services Division of NHS National Services Scotland. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0, including ISP (National MIS Files), NHSBSA Copyright 2021.