Covid Booster Supply Issues – Many pharmacies have reported that they are only receiving ‘a fraction’ of the Covid booster vaccines in their order deliveries. Despite placing orders for the vaccines, one pharmacy leader has spoken out and claimed they aren’t receiving their allocated deliveries of the boosters and are worried they will not have enough supply and may have to turn patients away.
With the booster programmes getting underway, coming into the winter months, any supply issues will be a nightmare for community pharmacies who are getting prepared to provide this service for thousands of patients. Many pharmacies have spent money to upgrade their premises to accommodate the vaccinations programmes and invest in their teams to upskill and train them to deliver this service – but what will be the point if no stock is available to carry out the vaccinations?
A spokesperson for NHS has confirmed that there are no stock issues and supply will be made smoothly and fairly across all pharmacies and vaccinations centres in the UK with priority given to care homes that will begin their booster vaccinations in early September.
This is the first year that the pharmacies delivering the covid booster vaccinations, will be paid less than they ever have since the pandemic. The vaccine being rolled out is the bivalent vaccine which targets both the original virus and the Omicron variant. Pfizer/BioNTech has just been approved as a bivalent covid booster vaccine just days ago by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) after fully meeting the UK regulator’s standard of safety, quality and effectiveness. MHRA has also announced that this vaccine will be available to roll out for the UK Autumn booster programme.
With more vaccines being produced, hopefully, there will be no supply issues and the rollout of the booster programmes can be are smooth as possible so pharmacies can efficiently provide this service to many patients.