Chichester and Bognor pharmacies back Observer's campaign for vaccine centres in pharmacies

The Chichester Observer and its sister titles across the UK today challenged Boris Johnson to ensure that every citizen is only a short walk away from a vaccine centre.

Why we’re calling on Boris Johnson to turn our pharmacies into Covid vaccine centresNational chains like Boots and Lloyds confirmed they are liaising with the NHS for local sites, and an independent Bognor Regis business also confirmed there has been clear demand for the service.

Claire Johnson is the superintendant at Nyewood Healthcare ltd, which runs two independent pharmacies in Bognor Regis – West Meads Pharmacy at The Precinct and Jordan’s Pharmacy at the Parade.

She said: “I think in general pharmacies are very keen to do the vaccine and get involved.

“We all do the flu vaccine, and I think we have the capacity to add to the general number [of Covid vaccinations taking place].

“We’ve got the ability to do it, we know what we’re doing.

“Even if we did a couple of hundred a week, it’s going to help.

“It’s about getting everyone jabbed as fast as we can.”

She added that it would dependent on using the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, as pharmacies would not have the appropriate storage facilities for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

“We’ve had a lot of concerned patients that are calling us,” she said.

“They don’t really want to be travelling to go and get the vaccine.

“Because we do their flu vaccine, they want to have their covid vaccine done with us, because they trust us.

“A lot of them don’t have cars, they would be going on public transport.

“We are trusted and they know us.

“We’ve had a lot of people that are slightly disappointed that we are not involved.”

Laura Robertson, associate director of communications for Sussex NHS Commissioners, said: "We understand there will be pharmacy-led pilot sites in Sussex but we are unable to reveal when and where at the moment .

"The NHS is supportive of pharmacies being part of the vaccination programme, helping to reach our communities."

A spokesman for LloydsPharmacy said: "LloydsPharmacy has participated in the tender process to help the NHS deliver the COVID-19 vaccine roll out programme, offering the support of our pharmacies.

"We would be delighted to be involved and look forward to confirming how we can support. With the MHRA approval of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, we believe there is now a bigger role for community pharmacy to play in helping the government to meet its vaccination targets.

"Lloyds Pharmacy will continue to work with the NHS and sector organisations to understand how we can assist in the critical roll out of this vaccine."

Lloyds Pharmacy is currently liaising with the NHS over which of the company's sites will be involved.

A spokesman for Boots said: “We have worked with the Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) to initially open three COVID-19 vaccination sites, based in Halifax, Huddersfield and Gloucester.

"We continue to work closely with the NHS and discussions are underway to potentially expand this to more mass vaccination sites in the coming months. It is too early to discuss possible locations.”