Community pharmacies should be commissioned to provide childhood vaccinations for school age children to help tackle falling uptake rates and growing vaccine hesitancy, the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has said.
The organisation, which represents around 6,000 independent community pharmacies across the UK, has warned that without urgent reform of the current vaccination programme, the country could face more outbreaks of preventable diseases including measles and meningitis.
At present, vaccinations for school age children are delivered either through schools or GP practices, despite pharmacies already playing a major role in administering flu and Covid-19 vaccinations to adults.
The NPA says pharmacies are well placed to support the NHS in improving access to vaccines, particularly as more patients are already approaching pharmacies for private childhood vaccinations following recent outbreaks of meningococcal disease in Berkshire and Kent.
Analysis carried out by the NPA found that no national childhood vaccination programme in the UK currently meets the World Health Organisation’s 95% uptake target. Uptake rates across all major childhood vaccination programmes have fallen since 2018.
According to the analysis, uptake of the MenACWY vaccine, which protects against strains of meningitis, has fallen by 16% since 2018, leaving around one in four eligible Year 9 and 10 pupils unvaccinated.
Similarly, uptake of the Td/IPV vaccine, which protects against tetanus, diphtheria and polio, has also fallen by 15 %, with more than a quarter of teenagers aged 14 to 16 currently unprotected.
Flu vaccination uptake among eligible school children has also declined significantly. While 60% of eligible children received a flu vaccine in 2018, uptake this year fell to 52% overall and just 43% among 15 to 16-year-olds.
The NPA is now calling on the NHS to commission pharmacies to provide free catch-up vaccinations for children over the age of 11 who missed one or more vaccines, similar to systems already in place in countries including France.
New polling commissioned by the NPA and conducted by YouGov found strong public support for expanding pharmacy vaccination services, with 55% of adults in England saying they would like childhood vaccination services to be available in pharmacies.
The polling also highlighted accessibility challenges within general practice, with 39% of respondents saying they found it difficult to access their GP, compared to just 6% who reported difficulty accessing a pharmacy.
The NPA believes pharmacies could also play an important role in tackling vaccine hesitancy at community level, particularly in areas where uptake remains low.
The organisation pointed to recommendations made by the recently published Covid-19 Inquiry, which concluded that community pharmacies should be used more widely in vaccination efforts because of their effectiveness in reaching communities with lower uptake levels.
Olivier Picard, Chair of the National Pharmacy Association, said: “Falling rates of childhood vaccination represents a significant public health challenge and could have tragic consequences if not addressed.
“Without urgent action to tackle a dangerous and growing wave of vaccine hesitancy, we risk seeing more heartbreaking outbreaks of preventable illness that we have already seen in parts of the UK recently.
“Pharmacies stand ready and able to support the NHS tackle this. We need reform to an outdated childhood vaccination programme which recent evidence suggests has seen declining levels of uptake, with potentially worrying consequences.
“It makes sense for pharmacies, who are highly accessible and on people’s doorsteps, to be able to help NHS colleagues deliver vaccinations.
“We must do all we can to stop the clock being turned back on efforts to eradicate serious childhood diseases.”