COVID-19 Vaccination Programme: Compensation for Pharmacy Owners

As part of ongoing discussions with NHS England about the presentation of people who are ineligible for COVID-19 vaccinations to appointments at community pharmacies, Community Pharmacy England has now written formally to the NHS seeking financial compensation for pharmacy owners.

We have been in contact with NHS England since the start of the NHS seasonal vaccination service about the ongoing issues that pharmacy owners are facing, with ineligible people often presenting via appointments booked through the National Booking System (NBS).

The issues have largely been caused by the significant changes to COVID-19 vaccination eligibility criteria this winter. Read more about this here.

This has been a deeply frustrating time for pharmacy owners, with knock-on financial impacts as well as significant challenges for their teams to address. We have been raising a significant number of concerns about the impact on pharmacy owners and their teams, as set out below, including the administrative burden, financial costs, impact on teams and damage to relations with the public.

Since discussions began, we have been updating pharmacies on progress regularly via our website, as well as publishing resources to help pharmacy teams (which you can find at the bottom of this page) and contributing to national media coverage to help raise public awareness of the amended eligibility criteria.

As a result of our representations, NHS England has taken a number of actions – these are also detailed below – and they include issuing messages to all people who have booked via the NBS, as well as issuing communications for use with the public, and to GPs.

After careful consideration of a number of possible routes for claiming compensation for pharmacy owners, including the potential value of gathering more data from the sector (which would have delayed any claim being made, and made this more complex for pharmacy owners), we have asked NHS England to pay pharmacy owners for any appointments which had been booked via NBS, but where people turned out to be ineligible for COVID-19 vaccinations when they presented at the pharmacy.

We await a response from NHS England to this compensation claim.

Commenting on this issue, Janet Morrison, Chief Executive at Community Pharmacy England, said:

“Yet again, it has felt like a chaotic start to the NHS winter vaccination programme in community pharmacies, where teams have been left to explain this year’s changes to vaccination eligibility to frustrated members of the public.

“How many times must we ask the NHS to help community pharmacies to operationalise this service, only for yet more barriers to be put in their way? We are deeply concerned, but not surprised, to hear that some pharmacy owners will consider not providing this vital service in the future.

“As a sector already in financial crisis, pharmacies can little afford to waste time, effort and money, on appointments which have been booked by patients, but which then cannot be undertaken as expected. And this is why we have sought compensation for pharmacy owners from the NHS: pharmacies cannot continue to pay the price for problems that are entirely of someone else’s making.”

Concerns raised with NHS England

We have raised a number of concerns about this matter with NHS England, including:

• The need for clearer communications to the public about eligibility, especially on the National Booking System;
• The need for better systems to ensure that only eligible people are allowed to book vaccination appointments;
• The damage to trust where people are told by one system or provider that they can receive a vaccination, and then they are ineligible;
• The damaging impact on vaccination uptake that this could have, with some pharmacy owners reporting that patients eligible for flu vaccination, but not C-19 vaccination, are now refusing the offer of flu vaccination;
• The financial cost where people book appointments which pharmacies are then not able to use to vaccinate them;
• The additional costs and wasted staff time from the time spent communicating with ineligible people, some of whom are distressed, angry or abusive;
• The emotional impact that these interactions can have on pharmacy teams, where members of the public are distressed, angry or abusive;
• The administrative costs where pharmacies are working to check eligibility and contact people in advance of appointments, to minimise disruption at the pharmacy; and
• The risks of leftover flu vaccine stock for pharmacies this year – and wider risks to the vaccination service next year if businesses purchase more cautiously in reaction to this year’s issues or choose not to participate in the winter vaccination programme at all.

Actions taken by NHS England so far

At our request, NHS England has taken a number of actions so far, including to:

• Amend the wording on the NBS to highlight that eligibility for COVID-19 vaccination has changed this winter compared to last winter (NHS England made changes to the wording on Monday 6th October);
• Issue a message to patients who have already booked appointments for COVID-19 vaccinations via NBS to highlight the changes in eligibility and that this will be checked at the pharmacy (on the evening of Tuesday 7th October, NHS England sent emails and SMS to all people under 75 years of age with an NBS COVID-19 vac booking in the following 10 days);
• Issue NHS-branded communications materials that pharmacies can use to explain the change in eligibility to patients (published on Monday 6th October); and
• Issue communications via their Primary Care Bulletin on 9th October, to remind general practice teams of the changes to the eligible cohorts.

Resources to help pharmacy teams

We have created three posters that pharmacy teams can use to help explain about vaccine eligibility this winter:

Who should have the COVID-19 vaccine this winter (Poster)

Information on immunosuppression and C-19 vaccination (Poster)

The NHS has changed who can get a COVID-19 vaccine this winter (Poster)

Any pharmacy owners wanting to display notices/posters reminding the public of the importance of respecting staff can download NHS-branded materials from the DHSC Campaign Resource Centre.

A factsheet on eligibility for flu and COVID-19 vaccination has been published by NHS England (Monday 6th October 2025) and three slides for use on digital screens complement the factsheet.

Download the factsheet and slides for digital screens

The following NHS website page explains which patients are eligible for adult flu and COVID-19 vaccination this autumn/winter season and it may be useful to pharmacy teams needing to point patients to NHS information that explains the different eligibility criteria for the two vaccines.

Winter vaccinations and winter health

The UKHSA have issued leaflets for the public on COVID-19 and Flu vaccinations this winter:

A guide to COVID-19 autumn vaccination

The flu vaccination: who should have it and why (winter 2025 to 2026)