COVID-19 Vaccination Service – Campaign Archive

NHS England invited pharmacies already contracted to provide the COVID-19 Vaccination Service to let their local commissioner know, by 22nd February 2024, if they were able to continue providing the COVID-19 vaccination service from 31st March 2024 to 31st August 2024 and were content for their contracts to be extended.

On 1st March 2024, they announced a new expression of interest (EOI) process for pharmacy owners that want to take part in the Spring COVID-19 Vaccination Service and are able to assist with provision of additional capacity in specific postcode areas.

The published postcode areas, where additional capacity was being sought, were in the following regions: East of England; Midlands; North East & Yorkshire; South East; and South West.

A notice of the opportunity was published on the Government website which directed pharmacy owners to the Atamis portal to complete registration. The opportunity can then be found in the ‘View our live opportunities’ and by searching for C25035. The closing date for submissions was at 11:59pm on 6th March 2024.

Access the notice of the opportunity

The Enhanced service specification was updated and published on the NHS England website:

Community Pharmacy Enhanced Service COVID-19 vaccination programme: September 2023 to August 2024

Minimal changes were made to the service specification, with the exception of the end date and payment arrangements from 1st April 2024 (see below).

Eligible patients

In early February 2024, the Government accepted the final Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advice for the COVID-19 Spring 2024 seasonal campaign. The groups to be offered a COVID-19 booster vaccine were:

• Residents in a care home for older adults
• Adults aged 75 years and over
• Individuals aged 6 months and over who are immunosuppressed (as defined in tables 3 or 4 in the COVID-19 chapter of the green book

This included those who turned 75 years old by 30th June 2024. These people were eligible for a vaccination at any point in the campaign. People who are admitted to an older adult care home or become immunosuppressed by 30th June were also eligible.

The Spring 2024 campaign ran from 1st April 2024 to 31st August 2024. Visits to older adult care homes and eligible housebound patients began on 15th April 2024. For all other eligible cohorts, vaccinations started by 22nd April 2024 and ended on 30th June 2024.

The COVID-19 booster vaccine was to be offered around six months after the last vaccine dose, although operational flexibility around the timing of the spring dose in relation to the last vaccine dose was considered appropriate (with a minimum interval of three months between doses).

Funding

The COVID-19 vaccinations fee for the period of the contract extension (1st April 2024 to 31st August 2024) remained at £7.54 per vaccination. In response to Community Pharmacy England’s arguments on funding, NHS England did however agree that for the Spring campaign only, an additional payment of £2.50 per administered vaccination would be made.

The additional payment was to recognise that the Spring booster programme was unable to benefit from cost efficiencies linked to co-administration of COVID-19 and flu vaccines, which was part of NHS England’s original rationale for the reduction in the fees they imposed in 2023. Alongside the above fees, pharmacy owners that vaccinate a housebound patient in their home (not in a care home) will be able to claim an additional £10 fee.

Key documents

Service specification for the spring 2024 booster campaign (31st March 2024 to 31st August 2024) Community Pharmacy Enhanced Service COVID-19 vaccination programme (updated 31st January 2024)

JCVI statement on the COVID-19 vaccination programme for spring 2024 (published 7th February 2024)

NHS England’s letter on preparing for a successful spring 2024 COVID-19 vaccination campaign (published 21st February 2024)

Eligible patients

In early August 2023, the Government accepted the final Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advice for the COVID-19 Autumn 2023 seasonal campaign. The groups to be offered a COVID-19 booster vaccine were:

• Residents in a care home for older adults
• All adults aged 65 years and over
• Persons aged 6 months to 64 years in a clinical risk group, as laid out in the Immunisation Green Book, COVID-19 Chapter (Green Book)
• Frontline health and social care workers
• Persons aged 12 to 64 years who are household contacts (as defined in the Green Book) of people with immunosuppression
• Persons aged 16 to 64 years who are carers (as defined in the Green Book) and staff working in care homes for older adults.

The JCVI also advised that primary course vaccination for individuals in the above cohorts who have not had any previous doses should be offered. They could receive a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine during the campaign period.

Timing of the campaign

Originally, NHS England’s letter to systems, community pharmacies and general practices (published on 10th August 2023) advised that COVID-19 vaccinations (and flu vaccinations – but see further information here) would commence from 2nd October 2023 for care home residents and care home staff and from 7th October 2023 for all other eligible patient cohorts. However, following guidance from UKHSA, the Government asked NHS England to bring forward the start of the COVID-19 autumn/winter booster programme due to the risks presented by the new BA.2.86 variant of COVID-19.

On 30th August 2023, NHS England’s letter to systems, community pharmacies and general practices (published in the Primary Care Bulletin on 1st September 2023), which superseded the previous letter, advised that COVID-19 vaccinations (and flu vaccinations – but see further information here) could commence:

• for care home residents, care home staff and those that are housebound from 11th September 2023;
• for all other eligible patient cohorts, vaccination can commence via Local Booking Systems (LBS) from 11th September 2023; and
• from 18th September 2023, LBS would be complemented by the National Booking System (NBS) which would become available to allow eligible patient cohorts to book a COVID-19 or flu vaccination online (using NHS.uk), via the NHS App or by calling 119.

National COVID-19 vaccination invitations were also issued to eligible patients from 18th September 2023.

Systems were asked to ensure that all care home residents were vaccinated by 22nd October 2023 with vaccination for all other cohorts completed by 15th December 2023.

Funding

For the autumn 2023/24 booster programme, pharmacy owners were paid £7.54 for each vaccine administered.

This vaccination fee was 25% lower than the previously paid fee and pharmacy owners were advised to carefully consider the economics of providing the service prior to submitting an EOI.

Read our comment on the reduced fee

There was an additional financial supplement of £10 per dose for the vaccination of housebound people (cannot be claimed for vaccinations given in care homes).

These fees are funded from the NHS vaccination budget, not from the pharmacy global sum.

The vaccines were provided to the designated pharmacy owners free of charge and therefore, no reimbursement of the cost of the vaccine will be payable.

Accelerated provision fees

To support acceleration of the vaccination programme, NHS England put in place interim financial arrangements, recognising the additional administrative, organisational and delivery costs which pharmacy owners incurred.

Pharmacies commissioned to provide COVID-19 vaccinations were eligible to claim:

• An additional acceleration payment of £10 (in addition to the item of service (IoS) fee) for each COVID-19 vaccination administered to care home residents between 11th September and Sunday 22nd October 2023 inclusive.
• An additional acceleration payment of £5.00 (in addition to the IoS) for each COVID-19 vaccination administered to care home residents between 23rd October  and 31st October.
• A separate one-off additional payment of £200 for each completed care home by 23:59 on Sunday 22nd October 2023 that is confirmed to the commissioner by the submission of a live time survey no later than 23:59 on Sunday 29th October 2023.

To support the acceleration of COVID-19 vaccinations to other eligible cohorts:

• An additional £5 acceleration payment (in addition to the IoS fee) was paid for each COVID-19 vaccination administered to other eligible people (i.e. excluding care home residents and housebound people, who are covered by the above arrangements) between 11th September and 31st October 2023.

Key documents

Service specification for the autumn/winter 2023/24 Community Pharmacy National Enhanced Service COVID-19 vaccination programme (updated 5th September 2023)

JCVI update statement on the COVID-19 vaccination programme for autumn 2023 (published 30th August 2023)

JCVI statement on the COVID-19 vaccination programme for autumn 2023 (published 8th August 2023)

NHS England’s letter on the BA2.86 risk and changes to autumn/winter 2023/24 vaccination delivery programme (published 30th August 2023)

NHS England’s letter on the Autumn/Winter 2023-24 flu and COVID-19 seasonal campaign (published 10th August 2023)

Patient Group Directions for COVID-19 vaccines (published 7th September 2023)
These PGDs provide one of the legal mechanisms for administration of COVID-19 vaccines under the service.

National Protocols for COVID-19 vaccines (published 8th September 2023)
These protocols provide the legal mechanisms for the administration of COVID-19 vaccines by appropriately trained persons in accordance with regulation 247A of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 (HMR 2012), inserted by The Human Medicines (Coronavirus and Influenza) (Amendment) Regulations 2020.

Community Pharmacy Expression of Interest Guidance (published 4th August 2023)