Community pharmacies in North Yorkshire ready for COVID-19 vaccination
They say they're ready to step up and play their part to ensure the COVID-19 vaccinations are administrated as soon as possible.
With the approval of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine by the MHRA, North Yorkshire Community Pharmacies say they're ready to step up and play their part to ensure the COVID-19 vaccinations are administrated as soon as possible.
They say pharmacies do not need to be trained in administrating the jab, as they are already delivering flu vaccination and have been for years. Community Pharmacy Flu vaccinations this year in North Yorkshire are significantly up on last year.
North Yorkshire Community Pharmacies say as of today, they say have not received approval to participate in vaccinating as many people as possible, to ensure they start the fight back against the COVID-19 virus and say they stand ready to start vaccinating immediately.
Community Pharmacies say they're in an ideal position to provide COVID-19 Vaccinations, as it is the closest point of entry into the NHS.
They say this is demonstrated in the evidence below from the North Yorkshire and City of York Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment 2019-2022:
• 97% of the North Yorkshire population can access community pharmacy within a 10 minute drive time.
• 100% of the York population can access pharmaceutical services within a 10 minute drive time.
• On average, the current population is older than that of England. The population structure indicates that proportionally there are more people at each of the five year age groups from 45 years and older when compared with England.
• The population is projected to grow in the 50+ age groups with a slight decrease in the 40-49 by 2021. The 0–14 age groups are expected to grow by the year 2021, along with the 25-39 age groups.
The 15-24 age groups are expected to decrease by 2021.
CEO of Community Pharmacy North Yorkshire, Ian Dean, said:
“The approval of a second vaccine, and one that has less complex handling characteristics when compared to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, is a positive step. The rollout of the vaccination programme will not be without its challenges, but community pharmacists and their teams are used to overcoming hurdles to provide the best care to their patients, so we believe their skills should be used by the NHS to help administer the tens of thousands of vaccinations that will be needed to help North Yorkshire escape from the grip of the pandemic.”