RSV and Pertussis Vaccination Service

RSV

RSV is an enveloped RNA virus, in the same family as the human parainfluenza viruses and mumps and measles viruses. It is one of the common viruses that cause coughs and colds in winter, being transmitted by large droplets and by secretions from contact with an infected person. The virus can survive on surfaces or objects for about four to seven hours and the incubation period is short at about three to five days.

RSV circulates in temperate climates and epidemics generally start in October and last for four to five months, peaking in December. The sharp winter peak varies little in timing or magnitude, in contrast to influenza virus infection which is much less predictable in its timing.

In most people, RSV infection causes a mild respiratory illness, but for a small number of people who are at risk of more severe respiratory disease, it might cause pneumonia or even death.

High risk groups are the very young (under one year of age) and the elderly. Infants aged less than six months frequently develop the most severe disease and require hospitalisation. Children born prematurely or with underlying lung disease, and the elderly with chronic illness, are also at risk of developing severe disease.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised that “there is a significant burden of RSV illness in the UK population and unmet public health need, which has a considerable impact on NHS services during the winter months” and that “an RSV immunisation programme, that is cost effective, should be developed for both infants and older adults”.

Following on from the JCVI advice, NHS England confirmed in a letter that it would commission:

• An older adult programme (this is predominately be commissioned through general practice as an Essential service); and
• A programme during pregnancy to protect infants (this will predominantly be commissioned through NHS Trusts).

At that time, the adult programme covered:

• An annual routine all-year round programme for adults turning 75 years on or after 1st September 2024, who are at least aged 75 at the point of vaccination and remain eligible until they attain 80 years of age;
• A one-off catch-up campaign for older adults aged 75-79 years on 1st September 2024 who will remain eligible until they attain 80 years of age; and
• To protect infants, all women who are at least 28 weeks pregnant on 1st September 2024, will be offered a single dose of the RSV vaccine. After that, pregnant women will become eligible as they reach 28 weeks gestation and remain eligible up to birth.

NHS England estimate the following cohort sizes for the adult programmes:

• Circa 486,000 people per year
• Circa 2,350,000 people in total

On 2nd February 2026, NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced the expansion of the eligibility criteria for the RSV vaccination programme from 1st April 2026 to include:

• Adults aged 80 years and over; and
• All residents in care homes for older adults .

The expanded cohorts are based on the latest advice from the JCVI.

Following further JCVI advice, the adult cohort was further expanded from 1st September 2026 to include adults aged 65 to 74 years old in certain clinical at risk groups:

• Chronic respiratory disease (refer to annex A of the bipartite letter for more detail)
• Immunosuppression due to disease or treatment (refer to the Green Book RSV chapter for more information)

RSV is estimated to account for 175,000 annual general practice episodes of care in those age 65 years and older in the UK. It is also estimated that in each winter season, there are 4,000 deaths due to RSV in those aged over 75 years in England and Wales.

The UKHSA estimates that RSV accounts for approximately 33,500 hospitalisations annually in children aged under 5 years old and is a leading cause of infant mortality globally, with 20 to 30 deaths per year in the UK. A study of RSV vaccination of pregnant women indicated that infants had a 70% reduced risk of severe lower respiratory tract disease caused by the RSV virus.

Analysis by UKHSA, Imperial College London and Oxford Population Health also suggests that 640,000 antibiotic prescriptions are issued each year in response to RSV infections accounting for 2.1% of antibiotic prescriptions from English GPs. The vaccination programme will, therefore, have a part to play in tackling antibiotic resistance by reducing the number of infections and so, the need for antibiotics in these cases.

Community pharmacy RSV service

As part of the NHS Vaccination Strategy, NHS England announced it would commission a supplementary pharmacy vaccination service to run alongside general practice where a local population need had been identified. The service would seek to commission via a competitive process up to 50 pharmacies as ‘early adopter’ sites across two Integrated Care Boards (ICB) in the East of England.

The plan was to commission 25 pharmacies in NHS Mid and South Essex ICB and a further 25 in NHS Suffolk and North East Essex ICB. The approach was to enable NHS England to understand vaccine supply, vaccination event recording and data flows etc., with a view to expand provision rapidly. Pharmacies began offering the service in October 2024. The service was commissioned as a Local Enhanced Service (LES) by NHS England in consultation with the associated Local Pharmaceutical Committees (LPC).

The UKHSA has published a synthesis of learning on the RSV vaccination programme for older adults and pregnant women in community pharmacies in the East of England.

Following findings from the pharmacy early adopters, NHS England commissioned an amended service as a National Enhanced Service (NES) for up to 200 additional community pharmacy sites, which includes both RSV and pertussis vaccinations. Under this type of service, NHS England commissions an Enhanced service that is nationally specified. This requires NHS England to consult with Community Pharmacy England on matters relating to the service specification and remuneration for the service.

This differs from a LES that is locally developed and designed to meet local health needs and for which NHS England would consult with LPCs. A NES allows the agreement of standard conditions nationally, while still allowing the flexibility for local decisions to commission the service to meet local population needs, as part of a nationally coordinated programme.

The announcement of the expansion to additional pharmacy sites was made by the Department of Health and Social Care as part of guidance on the NHS public health functions agreement for 2025/26.

Pertussis

Pertussis (whooping cough) is a respiratory disease caused by the Bordetella pertussis bacterium. Pertussis can cause serious and life-threatening complications including pneumonia, difficulty in breathing (apnoea) and seizures. Severe complications and deaths occur mostly in infants under six months of age. The disease is preventable by vaccination.

Pertussis usually begins with mild, cold-like symptoms that develop over one to two weeks into coughing fits which can be severe. The cough often can last for two to three months and because of this, in some countries, pertussis is known as the ‘100-day cough’.

In response to a national outbreak and the death of a number of infants in 2012, the DHSC announced the introduction of a temporary immunisation programme for pregnant women. In June 2014, the JCVI reviewed the programme and agreed that “acceptance of the programme amongst pregnant women was good and that relatively high coverage, coupled with high effectiveness of the vaccine had resulted in a reduction in disease and mortality in young infants”. As a result, JCVI advised that the maternal vaccination should continue as a routine programme.

Maternal vaccination protects infants by boosting pertussis immunity during pregnancy. This enables the mother to transfer a high level of pertussis antibodies across the placenta to her unborn child. Passive protection is, therefore, provided for infants against pertussis from birth until they are due their first dose of primary immunisations at eight weeks of age.

Although cases of pertussis were low during the COVID-19 pandemic due to measures such as social distancing, the number of pertussis cases started to rise again from summer 2023.

Improving vaccine uptake

According to the UKHSA, the number of women receiving a pertussis-containing vaccine has fallen year on year over the last few years. For 2022/23, vaccine coverage was 60.7%. This means many pregnant women are not receiving a vaccine to protect their infant at a time when the number of cases of pertussis is increasing.

To optimise the uptake of the pertussis-containing vaccine in pregnant women the vaccination was added to the pharmacy service to increase the ease of access to vaccination.

When the NES was first commissioned, NHS England, in consultation with ICBs, determined if there was an unmet local population need and whether the service needed to be commissioned. Where a need was identified, NHS England published the opportunity as a tender and ran the tender process in accordance with the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023. Each opportunity was published on the Contracts Finder and Find a Tender websites, with ITT documents being published on the Health Family Portal (registration required).

Pharmacy owners in the areas where it was decided to commission the service (see below) were invited to consider and submit their responses to any opportunity where they felt they could meet the requirements set out by the commissioner in their invitation to tender (ITT).

The current commissioning of the service runs to 31st March 2027; NHS England is not seeking additional pharmacies to commission the service from at this time.

Early adopter areas

• NHS Mid and South Essex ICB – 25 pharmacies
• NHS Suffolk and North East Essex ICB – 25 pharmacies

Tendered areas

Midlands – procurement was in three lots for a total of 66 pharmacies to cover the populations of:

• Lot 1 – Black Country ICB – 22 pharmacies in designated postcode areas
• Lot 2 – Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland ICB – 22 pharmacies in designated postcode areas
• Lot 3 – Birmingham and Solihull ICB – 22 pharmacies in designated locality areas

London – procurement to commission up to 66 community pharmacies to provide fixed site vaccination services for RSV only at their pharmacy premises across North West London ICB, North Central London ICB, North East London ICB, South East London ICB and South West London ICB.

North West – procurement to commission up to 66 community pharmacies to provide fixed site vaccination services at their pharmacy premises.

Cheshire and Mersey ICB – 36 community pharmacies across:

• Liverpool (Postcode areas – L1, L2, L3, L4, L5, L6, L7, L8, L9, L12, L13, L14, L15, L16, L18 and, L25);
• Knowsley (Postcode areas – L32, L33 and L36);
• Sefton (Postcode areas – L20, L21 and L22);
• St Helens (Postcode areas – WA10, WA11 and WA12); and
• Wirral (Postcode areas Group 1 (CH41, CH43, CH44, CH 45), Group 2 (CH46, CH47) and Group 3 (CH48, CH49)).

Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB – 30 pharmacies across:

• Blackburn with Darwin (Postcode areas – BB1, BB2 and BB3);
• East Lancashire (Postcode areas BB5, BB9, BB12 and BB18);
• Preston (Postcode areas – PR1, PR2 and PR3);and
• West Lancashire (Postcode areas L39, L40 and WN8).

Key documents

RSV Vaccine Patient Group Direction
The Patient Group Direction (PGD) provides the legal mechanism for administration of RSV vaccine under the service.

Pertussis Vaccine Patient Group Direction 
The Patient Group Direction (PGD) provides the legal mechanism for administration of a low dose diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis-containing vaccine, with or without inactivated poliomyelitis (Tdap or dTaP/IPV) to pregnant women from week 16 of pregnancy under the service.

Eligible cohorts

The service specification confirms the eligible cohorts for the vaccinations in the service.

Vaccine procurement

The vaccines used in the service are procured centrally and can be ordered online via the ImmForm website. See the ImmForm helpsheet for information on registering for an ImmForm account. The vaccines will be provided free of charge for this programme.

The RSV vaccine that will be available to order is Abrysvo®. It is supplied in single dose packs measuring 73mm x 35mm x 116mm (H x W x D). Each pack will include a vial for reconstitution (containing drug product), a pre-filled syringe (containing sterile water diluent) and one unattached needle for administration.

ADACEL (Tdap) is the vaccine that will be supplied for the maternal pertussis vaccination programme. It contains low dose diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis antigens.

This section contains additional information and resources to support pharmacy owners and their teams to provide the service.

The Patient Group Directions

The administration of an RSV or Pertussis vaccine – both of which are Prescription Only Medicines (POM) – as part of the vaccination service are legally authorised by associated PGDs.

The PGDs for the service have been developed and clinically approved by UKHSA. NHS England has authorised their use by an appropriately trained practitioner to provide the service.

The practitioners who can legally supply and administer under the PGDs are listed in the Qualifications and professional registration section of the PGDs and this mirrors the groups of practitioners authorised to supply or administer medication via a PGD under current legislation. That group of professionals includes pharmacy technicians. Any listed practitioners must only provide the service under the supervision of a pharmacist, trained in vaccinations (including a clear understanding of this service).

The PGD cannot be used to authorise administration of the vaccines under any other NHS or private services.

Appropriately trained practitioners, who will administer the vaccines under the authority of the PGDs must:

• Download a copy of the latest version of the PGDs from the NHS England website;
• Read the PGDs and ensure they fully understand their content, including the eligible patient groups, the inclusion and exclusion criteria and the record keeping requirements; and
• Complete the Practitioner declaration to confirm they have read and understood the content of the PGDs and that they are willing and competent to work to them within their professional code of conduct.

The Authorising Manager declaration must then be completed. The Authorising Manager’s role is to confirm the practitioner(s):

• Is/are aware of the service specification and requirements for provision of the service;
• Have demonstrated their competence to provide the service; and
• Has/have the organisation’s approval to provide the service.

In certain circumstances, for example, a community pharmacy where the pharmacist who will administer vaccines is also the superintendent pharmacist or pharmacy owner, it may be necessary for the authorising manager to be the same person as the practitioner, though this situation should be avoided wherever possible.

These steps must be completed before an individual practitioner is authorised to administer vaccines as part of the service.

Joint guidance and briefing documents

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccination programmes letter (24th June 2024)

NHS England guidance and briefing documents

RSV vaccination programme hub (Futures platform)

Vaccination in Pregnancy programme hub (Futures platform)

RSV vaccination invitation
This page provides RSV invitation materials in easy read, audio, British Sign Language (BSL) and other languages.

UKHSA guidance and briefing documents

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccination programme

UKHSA RSV guidance, data and analysis hub

UKHSA Pertussis guidance, data and analysis hub

General advice

Protocol for ordering, storing and handling vaccines

Vaccine incident guidance: responding to errors in vaccine storage, handling and administration

Immunisation against infectious disease: the green book (Chapter 24 Pertussis and chapter 27a Respiratory syncytial virus)

Vaccine Update

Other resources

Anaphylaxis action card – Personalise this card and keep it by the phone to guide staff on calling an ambulance if a patient has an anaphylactic reaction to a vaccine.

Anaphylactic reactions guidelines and algorithm poster (Resuscitation Council UK)

There are several conditions that are specified in the service specification which pharmacy owners must comply with prior to provision of the service. These include:

• Staff who will provide the service must be competent to provide the service (see the section on training requirements and resources for further details).

• Pharmacy owners must have an SOP in place for provision of the service, having regard to the requirements of the PGDs and service specification of which all pharmacy staff involved in provision of the service are aware, and which covers the following points as a minimum:
  • • the provision of the service to patients and the roles of different staff members;
    • the ongoing conditions under which the service needs to be provided (specified in the service specification);
    • cold chain integrity;
    • needle stick injuries; and
    • the identification and management of adverse reactions;
    • the handling, removal and safe disposal of any clinical waste related to the provision of the service.

• Pharmacy owners must also ensure the service is included in their business continuity plan.
• The pharmacy must have a consultation room which meets the applicable requirements of the Pharmaceutical Services Regulations. Vaccinations can be offered in any area of the pharmacy where suitable facilities are available, infection control standards can be maintained and patient confidentiality and dignity is able to be respected. However, the vaccination must take place in the consultation room wherever the patient expresses this preference.

These requirements do not prevent the presence of other persons where the patient requests or consents to this. For example, where the practitioner uses a chaperone, or wishes to include a trainee pharmacist in the consultation as part of their training, this would be allowed if the patient consents. Similarly, the patient may prefer that they are accompanied by another person during the consultation.

Vaccinations should be administered under the supervision of a pharmacist, trained in vaccinations (including a clear understanding of this service). A record should be maintained of who that person is at any given time.

Where vaccinations are to be administered to those under 18 years of age during pregnancy, the pharmacy owner must ensure that vaccinators have a valid Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) certificate.

Pharmacy owner and pharmacy professional checklists

Once a pharmacy owner has been commissioned to provide the service, our implementation checklists can be used to guide you through the steps needed to prepare to provide the service. 

Pharmacy owner implementation checklist for the NHS RSV and Pertussis Vaccination Service

Pharmacy professional implementation checklist for the NHS RSV and Pertussis Vaccination Service

Consultation room

Pharmacies must have a consultation room in order to be able to offer this service, which meets the requirements in the Terms of Service.

The consultation room must also have IT equipment accessible within the room to allow contemporaneous records of the consultations provided as part of this service. 

Clinical IT requirements 

NHS England has arranged IT support for the service – the record a vaccination service (RAVs). This must be used to record all RSV and pertussis vaccinations and to send messages containing the individual’s consultation outcomes to their general practice. 

NHS Profile Manager

Once commissioned to provide the service, you must update your pharmacy’s service details on the NHS website using NHS Profile Manager. This will allow your pharmacy to be identified by the public and by other healthcare professionals as providers of the service.

Details on how to do this are available on our NHS Profile Manager webpage.

National Booking Service (NBS) / Manage Your Appointments (MYA) system

NBS will be used by patients to book RSV and Pertussis vaccination appointments.

Pharmacy owners must offer RSV and Pertussis vaccination appointments through NBS to patients and must comply with any minimum publication standards for NBS appointments set out in the service specification.

Vaccination appointments and clinics should provide maximum flexibility for patients and should be available at a range of times throughout the pharmacy’s full opening hours including, where appropriate, late afternoons and Saturdays (where the pharmacy contractor is open on Saturdays) to maximise vaccination uptake to eligible cohorts.

Manage Your Appointments (MYA) is the appointment management system for sites to manage vaccination availability on the NBS.

Where a pharmacy owner does not already have access to MYA, as part of other vaccination services, they can complete the following form to request access.

Register for access to MYA

Once granted access to MYA, pharmacy owners should ensure they check their site details on the system, set up additional users and create availability for appointments in line with the service specification requirements.

NHS England guidance on use of MYA

MYA training videos (Futures platform)

Engagement with local general practices

There is no specific requirement within the service specification for pharmacy owners to engage with local general practices prior to provision of the service.

However, it is good practice to make them aware the pharmacy is participating in this service. A letter / email template to support pharmacy owners to notify GP practices that the pharmacy will be providing the service is available.

Download the general practice letter / email service notification template

A briefing to provide information for general practice teams on the service is available to assist pharmacy owners to engage their local colleagues.

Download the Briefing for general practice teams

The National Minimum Standards and Core Curriculum for Immunisation Training for Registered Healthcare Practitioners sets the standards and lists the essential topics which should be incorporated into immunisation training for registered healthcare practitioners.

People who will provide the RSV and Pertussis Vaccination Service must have completed practical training in vaccination that meets these requirements. There are a number of organisations that provide vaccination training for pharmacists and those that we have been made aware of are listed on our seasonal vaccinations service webpage.

Pharmacy owners will be expected to oversee and keep a record to confirm that all staff have undertaken training prior to participating in the administration of vaccinations. This includes any additional training associated with new vaccines that become available during the period of the service.

All persons involved in the administration of the vaccine must have:

• Completed the additional online RSV vaccination specific training modules and any pertussis vaccination specific training modules available on the e-learning for healthcare website;
• The necessary experience, skills and training to administer vaccines in general, including completion of the general immunisation training available on e-learning for healthcare and face-to-face administration training, where relevant;
• The necessary experience, skills and training to recognise and initial treatment of anaphylaxis;
• Where a healthcare professional is administering the vaccine, they must have:
  • Read and understood the clinical guidance available and ensure they keep up to date with new and updated guidance as it is published; and
  • Understood and be familiar with the PGDs for the RSV and Pertussis vaccines, including guidance on who can use them.

Pharmacy owners must ensure that staff are familiar with all guidance relating to the administration of the different types of vaccine and are capable of the provision of vaccinations using the different types of vaccine.

A set of NHS training slides have been published and are available to download.

• RSV for older adults vaccination programme slide set
• RSV maternal vaccination programme slide set
• Pertussis training slide set

The whole pharmacy team can proactively promote this service. Teams should be briefed on the service and coached on how to best approach people about the service.  A pharmacy team briefing  is available to assist pharmacy owners to engage and coach their team members. 

This section provides some of the practical requirements related to provision of the service.

Patient consent

As with the provision of any pharmacy service, the patient must consent to being vaccinated.

The General Pharmaceutical Council’s Guidance on Consent provides information on consent for pharmacists and their teams.

Prior to vaccination, consent must be sought from each patient for the administration of the vaccine.  The patient should also be advised of the information sharing that will take place for the appropriate recording of the vaccination in their GP practice medical record and information that will be shared with NHS England and the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) as part of post-payment verification, evaluation of service delivery and service evaluation and research.

Patient consent can be obtained verbally and should be recorded in the pharmacy’s clinical record for the service. Should the patient decline the vaccination at any stage, this must also be recorded in the clinical record for the service.

Service records, IT support and sharing of data

Pharmacy owners must ensure the vaccination is recorded on the same day that it is administered unless exceptional circumstances apply. Where the IT system is unavailable due to exceptional circumstances beyond the control of the pharmacy owner, then the record of vaccination must be added to the system as soon as possible after it becomes available again. In this circumstance, the commissioner must be notified if this will result in records of vaccinations being added to the point of care system on a different day than the vaccinations were administered.

Where the record of the vaccination event is not created within 15 days of the vaccination being administered, the pharmacy owner shall not be eligible for the item of service fees.

Where a record of the vaccination needs to be amended or has not been created on the point of care system, the pharmacy owner is responsible for undertaking the amendment or creation as soon as reasonably possible following notification that the record contains an error. All new or updated / edited records in RAVS automatically flow each night to the patient’s general practice and NHS England.

Storage of vaccines

Vaccines should be stored in line with the requirements set out by their manufacturer in the Summary of Product Characteristics. Consideration will also be needed regarding any requirements issues from UKHSA, NHS England, all associated guidance set out in the Storage distribution and disposal of vaccines chapter of the Green Book and all associated Standard Operating Procedures

Further guidance is also available in the 2014 Public Health England issued guidance on the protocol for ordering, storing and handling vaccinesfor all healthcare providers involved in vaccinations, including community pharmacies.

All refrigerators in which vaccines are stored must have a maximum / minimum thermometer. Readings must be taken and recorded from the thermometer on all working days.

Information resources for patients to use before/during/after consultations

RSV & Pertussis Vaccination Service – online information sources for patients
When pharmacy professionals are providing these vaccinations, there are several leaflets/websites for patients to be signposted to. This resource lists all the patient-facing leaflets/website links, including the marketing authorisation holder’s patient information leaflets (hard copies will be available within the vaccine’s packaging, with copies also being available from medicines.org.uk/emc). Hyperlinks to the leaflets/websites are listed, alongside QR codes for each leaflet/website so patients can scan this to access the leaflet/website link on their mobile phones.

UKHSA leaflets to promote the service are also available and these can be downloaded and printed or patients can be directed to a web-based version of the leaflets. Links to these can be found in the Promoting the service to patients section below.

Clinical waste

Pharmacy owners are required to make arrangements for the removal and safe disposal of any clinical waste and PPE related to the provision of this service.

Pharmacy owners must also ensure that staff are appropriately trained and made aware of the risks associated with the handling and disposal of clinical waste and that correct procedures are used to minimise those risks. A needle stick injury procedure must be in place.

Record keeping and data management 

Pharmacy owners should maintain appropriate clinical records to ensure effective ongoing service provision and audit.

Clinical records of service provisions should be retained for an appropriate period. Records of the reimbursement data reported to the commissioner should be retained for three years for PPV purposes.

Where the records relate to a RSV vaccination or a pertussis vaccination in pregnancy, the pharmacy owner must retain the records for a period of 25 years in line with Records Management Code of Practice.

Beyond the above requirements, as pharmacy owners are the data controller, it is for them to determine the appropriate length of time for retention of clinical records. Decisions on this matter should be documented in the SOP and should be in line with Records Management Code of Practice for Health and Social Care.

The pharmacy is required to report any patient safety incidents related to the service in line with the approved particulars for patient safety for pharmacies.

When pharmacy teams provide the service, notifying the patient’s general practice is an important service requirement.

Data recorded in the RAVS IT system regarding a patient’s vaccination will be shared with the patient’s general practice automatically.

Where a patient presents with an adverse drug reaction following the initial vaccination and the pharmacist believes this is of clinical significance, such that the patient’s general practice should be informed, this information should be shared with the general practice as soon as possible.

We have developed a range of materials which pharmacy owners can use to promote the availability of this service to patients.

• Suggested social media or text messages;
• Flyers for attaching to prescription bags:
  • RSV older adult vaccination flyer
  • RSV & Pertussis pregnant vaccination flyer.

We have developed a checklist so pharmacy owners can work through the checklist to see if there are any additional activities that they or their teams could participate in to promote the service to the public:

RSV and Pertussis Vaccination promotion to the public checklist

Developing your own marketing materials

If pharmacy owners decide to develop their own marketing materials to promote the service, they must ensure they comply with the requirements of the Terms of Service relating to promotion of services funded by the NHS.

If pharmacy owners choose to use the NHS identity on their marketing materials they must follow the primary care guidelines for use of the NHS identity.

An A-Z style guide of words and phrases about health and the NHS, which aims to make content aimed at patients easy to understand, is available on the NHS website. The NHS website team try to use words on their website that people use themselves when they talk about their problems and when they search for information on the internet. Community pharmacy teams may wish to refer to the guide when producing their own health content or communication materials.

Signposting patients 

A service finder, on the NHS website, lets members of the public and healthcare professionals search for a pharmacy that offers the service.

Find a pharmacy that offers free RSV vaccinations – NHS

UKHSA resources

RSV 

Stickers, posters and patient leaflets can be ordered via Health Publications (register for a health professional account). Searching for RSV should identify patient resources available.

Leaflets & posters

Available free to order:

• Older Adults guide: product code: V2C24RSV01EN
• Older Adult guide in other languages
• Older Adults Poster: product code: RSVOAEN
  (also available in other languages, large print, BSL, Audio and braille. Search Publications – Health Publications)
• RSV maternal vaccination programme poster
• A guide to RSV vaccination for pregnant women (print)
• Pregnancy: how to help protect you and your baby patient leaflet (various languages)
• UKHSA flu, Whooping cough (Pertussis) and RSV leaflet for pregnant women

Copies of these leaflets can be ordered from the Health Publications Order point or by phoning 0300 123 1002 and quoting the reference numbers on the back pages of the leaflets.

Pertussis

Whooping cough: vaccination in pregnancy programme resources

Leaflets and posters

Posters are available free to order:

Whooping cough vaccination in pregnancy: leaflet

Whooping cough vaccination in pregnancy: poster

Health Publications (Posters and guides)

Department of Health and Social Care resources

Posters and social media assets

RSV vaccine poster and digital screens

Vaccinations in Pregnancy | Campaigns | Campaign Resource Centre

Funding

Pharmacy owners will be paid £9.58 for the administration of each RSV vaccination to each patient and each pertussis vaccination to each patient; this fee is funded from NHS vaccination budgets, not from the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework global sum.

The respective vaccines will be provided to the pharmacy owner free of charge, and therefore, no reimbursement of the cost of the vaccine is payable.

Claiming payment

Pharmacy owners will need to make their claims via MYS and declare that the information is correct before submitting the claims for payment.

Claims should be made by the 5th of the month following the activity, as is normal for pharmacy services.

Pharmacy owners must claim payment within one month of, and no later than three months from the claim period for the chargeable activity provided. Claims which relate to work completed more than three months after the claim period in question will not be paid and the pharmacy owner will not receive any payment for the administration of those vaccinations.

Payments to pharmacy owners will be made monthly as part of their normal payment schedule.

Claims will show on payment schedules under under RSV & Pertussis expense heads:

• 3091 – RSV & Pertussis Vaccinations; and
• 3092 – RSV & Pertussis Vaccinations Adj, as applicable.

If a pharmacy owner wishes to withdraw from provision of the service or following any variations to the service, the pharmacy owner can no longer meet the revised requirements of the service, they can withdraw serving written notice on the commissioner to that effect, with supporting reasons as to why they wish to withdraw or cannot meet the revised requirements.

To terminate the service, a pharmacy owner must provide 28 days’ written notice to the commissioner, unless otherwise agreed with the commissioner.

In the case of withdrawal due to a service variation such notice, must be received by the commissioner no later than 42 days after publication of the relevant variation.

The commissioner must be provided with the written notice of withdrawal no fewer than 42 days before the pharmacy owner intends to stop provision of the service.

RSV and Pertussis Vaccination Service – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page

At Community Pharmacy England, we are always keen to hear from pharmacy owners and their teams about how the provision of national pharmacy services is going, be that niggles with the way services are commissioned, a success story you want to share or something else. 

Please click on the link below to share a success story where you have helped achieve a good outcome for a patient following a consultation for a national pharmacy service or to provide feedback on one of the services. 

Provide feedback on national pharmacy services