National Booking Service (NBS)
Published on: 13th October 2022 | Updated on: 13th January 2026
The National Booking Service (NBS) is an NHS digital tool that lets patients book vaccination appointments online. It has supported COVID‑19 vaccination bookings and, for some pharmacies, NHS flu vaccination appointments.
2026/2027
Pharmacy owners must use the National Booking Service (NBS) for COVID-19 vaccinations, but this is not yet required for flu.
For details on the latest arrangements, see:
Flu on NBS: proof of concept (2022 to early 2023)
NHS England introduced a proof‑of‑concept to extend NBS so patients could book flu vaccination appointments. This allowed bookings at:
- Community pharmacy‑led COVID‑19 vaccination sites already using NBS; and
- Around two hundred ‘flu‑only’ community pharmacies in the North West.
The proof of concept began on 14th October 2022, in line with the fifty to sixty‑four‑year‑old non‑clinical‑risk cohort becoming eligible for free NHS flu vaccination.
The aims were to:
- Test the NBS flu booking solution;
- Support autumn and winter 2022 capacity by easing pressure on general practice;
- Improve patient choice and visibility of flu appointment availability;
- Understand whether a national booking platform could help increase uptake; and
- Show that both patients and pharmacy owners could use NBS for non‑COVID‑19 vaccinations.
NBS flu calendars were added to community pharmacy Q‑Flow accounts in late September 2022 so appointments could be uploaded.
Use of NBS for flu: autumn 2023 to early 2024
NHS England will outline arrangements for those pharmacies already using NBS. We have encouraged NHS England to set this out as early as possible, well ahead of the 2023/2024 flu season.
CP ITG has advised NHS England that NBS should align with the NHS Booking and Referral Standard (BaRS) as soon as possible. Pharmacy appointment systems will also need to align, and development work is required to enable this.
Full alignment with BaRS should, over time, reduce the burden associated with managing multiple calendars when using NBS. Dedicated pharmacy vaccination appointment systems could also support:
- staff rotas and planning;
- stock ordering;
- management of just-in-time deliveries; and
- patient communications.
At present, NBS does not integrate with pharmacy appointment systems.
Further information
For more information on this topic please email it@cpe.org.uk
