Dear Colleague
CPNI highlight that community pharmacy are now able to vaccinate 35 to 39 year olds – from Monday 26 April 2021. For those community pharmacies that have remaining stock, they will be able to proceed to vaccine this new cohort. For community pharmacies who have exhausted their stock, we continue to make representations with both HSCB and DOH(NI) to obtain further stock. It has been agreed that there wouldn’t be a public announcement, to hopefully avoid community pharmacies being overwhelmed with requests for vaccinations. It is also worth noting that despite a challenging rollout, to date community pharmacies have vaccinated over 22,000 patients and we thank you for your continued dedicated professionalism.
Please find below correspondence from HSCB Pharmacy & Medicines Management team.
The latest Community Pharmacy COVID-19 vaccination figures can be viewed at the COVIDcare dashboard. To date community pharmacies have vaccinated over 22,000 patients – thank you to everyone involved!
Key Points
- Waste Report – reminder that the waste report and DNA figures must be completed for “Week 4-19 April to 25 April 2021” using the online form, even if it is a nil report. This is a mandatory requirement and those who have not submitted a report will be contacted. The report can be accessed at Waste Report. Entries should only be submitted from midday Friday 23rd April 2021 and must be submitted by Monday 26 April 2021 at 4pm. THIS MUST BE COMPLETED BY ALL CONTRACTORS. IF YOU ARE YET TO PLACE AN ORDER OR USE ANY STOCK PLEASE SUBMIT A NIL REPORT. If you are able to get a 9th dose from a vial but do not use it, this is not classed as waste and should not be included in your report. Please see attached weekly waste tracker to help you manage your report submissions. This is a resource to help you but should NOT be submitted as a paper record.
- Eligible patients – reminder that only patients from eligible cohorts should be vaccinated.
- 35 to 39 years – From Monday 26 April 2021, Community Pharmacy will be allowed to vaccinate those who are aged over 35 years old (born on or before 30 April 1986). For those pharmacies with COVID-19 vaccine stock you can proceed to organise clinics and reserve lists accordingly from this date. Vaccine stock will be made available to pharmacies as it is received into NI.
- Update 14 issued on the 8th April provided notification on the recent cohort changes and JCVI statement regarding 18-29 year olds and the Astrazeneca COVID-19 vaccine. Please ensure you are aware of the recent changes in eligible cohorts.
- Personally Identifiable Information – We have been notified of some incidents where personally identifiable information has been shared by email with the VMS system supplier. Please do not share this information by email. The supplier will contact you to get any information needed and provide guidance re format and amount that can be shared.
- VMS Matching
- If a patient doesn’t match on VMS do not proceed to vaccinate. This applies even if you know the patient and they have an H&C number. Their details must match on VMS to proceed. You will not be paid if you proceed to vaccinate. The patient will not have a vaccination record to share with their GP.
- The temporary over ride function has been removed. Unmatched records will not be paid.
- If a patient’s VMS status indicates that they have already been vaccinated at another centre, but the patient informs you that they have not been vaccinated – do not vaccinate the patient.
- If you are having problems accessing VMS, please contact your local HSCB office.
- Free RNIB training for vaccination staff and volunteers.
- The Royal National Institute of Blind People have free training available to staff and volunteers working on the vaccine programme to help you feel more confident in supporting people with sight loss. You can pick from three short online training modules covering communication, how to guide, and the experiences of people with sight loss, relevant to your time in the vaccination programme and beyond. Simply visit HERE and click the “register” button to access the training.
- If you don’t have much time, you can download a quick “handy tips” document for working with people with sight loss and display it in staff areas of your vaccination centre. First come, first served basis, so do register as soon as possible. Training is only 20 minutes per unit for two units and 40 minutes for the final unit and counts as CPD. The handy tips guide is available to download from the Health publications website HERE.
- PHA Leaflet updates – there have been changes and additions to the PHA COVID-19 vaccination leaflets. New supplies of printed leaflets are being organised for Community Pharmacy. When these arrive, please destroy your old versions. New versions of leaflets for patients are available online.
- COVID-19 vaccination – What to expect
- COVID-19 vaccination – A guide to the programme
- COVID-19 vaccination – A guide for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
- COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca and very rare blood clots
- Why do I have to wait?
- PHA have developed resources for healthcare professionals only. This includes information on blood clotting after COVID-19 vaccination. Please refer HERE.
- Queries: From day to day, information on the service has been changing very rapidly. Therefore it is really important that you read all the update letters as soon as possible. They have all been date marked to make it easier to identify the recent updates. Before contacting your local HSCB office, please refer to:
- HERE for all the latest information.
- Service FAQs **UPDATED from 23 April 2021** at Service FAQs ** These are not for public viewing and are password protected** Password: CPVS001!
- Support on VMS – please refer to the FAQs available at VMS FAQs
- Please do not contact individual HSCB staff directly unless told to do so. Please contact your local HSCB office who will triage your query and send to the appropriate contact.
- Social Media Resources “Find out your H&C number”: A number of pharmacies have received calls from patients wanting to know how to find out their H&C number. Below are a number of social media links to a video about how to find your health and care number. You may find these helpful to share via your social media platforms:
Kind regards
SENT ON BEHALF OF
GERARD GREENE
Chief Executive
