It wasn’t long ago when reports on how Community Pharmacy is going to change the UK's healthcare system and help take off the load from GPs and the NHS. Starting October, Shital Patel, Area manager for L.Cameron&Son along with Superintendent Pharmacist, Shilpesh Patel has started administering Covid booster jabs. Speaking exclusively to Asian Voice, Shital said, “We've been one of the clinics that have been offered in the southeast of London.”
Patel agreed that the NHS took notice that community pharmacies play a vital role in patient care. Talking about how successful the actual services are, given the opportunity community pharmacies provide, including easy access to patients, with all the facilities available train stations, parking. Patel said that this will help GPSs get on with the normal work as well. “Patients can be seen for appointments that they've been waiting to see throughout the pandemic,” Shital Patel told Asian Voice.
Her clinic is not just administering the Covid vaccine and its booster doses, but also serving flu shots. She said, “It is approved that now pharmacies can give patients with the flu jab and the Covid booster together. So that's an additional benefit to the patient that can come and have one treatment at both times.
But how can you approach a pharmacy to get a jab? Explaining the procedure, Shital said, “People need to book it through the National Booking System. Any healthcare professionals can walk in with a valid ID and have the jab at the clinic. We're encouraged to do it through the National Booking System, so that the NHS has an accurate record, and we can monitor the appointments of people who don't have access. We can always help them with booking appointments.”
When asked about what kind of age groups are turning up more for the jabs, Shital told the newsweekly, “Actually, everybody, really, everybody. We're seeing more patients who are not taking the jab but are reconsidering to take it, so some people are first-time appointments as well. There are a lot of people coming for the booster who have already taken both the doses of the Covid vaccine.”
Amid staff shortages and fuel crisis, how is Patel managing the influx of people? She said, “We're quite ready. We've got a fully staffed team and we're aiming to do 350 Covid boosters a week. That's our target. But that's the target by the NHS as well. We are already quite booked up. So it's a popular service. And all our regular patients are continuously asking for it at the clinic. It is very successful. And the staff, as well as our patients, are very appreciative of the service.”
Patel mentioned that the NHS is providing every possible support to her clinic and other community pharmacies to run this smoothly. “The NHS is there to support us. So like yesterday, they rang me to say, are you all setup? Do you need us to do anything else? Have you got any questions? They have regular online meetings to give us clinical updates. So the NHS itself is very supportive. We have all the contact numbers if it goes down because obviously, we need to enter all these records in the NHS. So the NHS works very closely with us in all departments from clinical use to the regional team, just to make sure the service is running as smoothly as possible.”
