The National Care Forum (NCF) has called on NHS England to work with GPs and pharmacies to help mobilise a local vaccination service for care home residents.
NCF executive director Vic Rayner (pictured) said the only “viable solution" for widescale vaccination of residents is to deliver it onsite in care homes as it is “not tenable” for frail people to go to hospital or community hubs.
“We know that taking the vaccine to the people who need it the most is the most effective way to boost uptake rates and protect our care home communities,” she added.
Care home residents are assigned top priority to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine but NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens has said they would not be first in line due to logistical challenges in keeping it at around -70C.
Rayner however said England should follow the lead of Scotland, where health minister Jeane Freeman said the Pfizer vaccine can be transported in an unfrozen state for up to 12 hours and could be stored undiluted for up to five days.
“Under certain conditions we can pack down to smaller pack sizes, which makes this more usable, with minimum wastage for our care home residents and our older citizens,” said Freeman.
“So, in effect, we can take the vaccine to them, or close to them, and we will begin that exercise from 14 December,” she added.
Rayner said it is “not at all clear” why the English government are not intending to “honour the prioritisation" outlined by the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisation.
“However, if it turns out that all avenues have been exhausted, and that there is no way for the Pfizer vaccine to be administered within care homes, then we need some urgent guarantees that the alternative vaccines will meet the criteria to be delivered,” she added.
Rayner continued: “The timescale for assurance of the alternative vaccines must be clearly laid out. It’s all very well to ask care homes to be ‘patient’, but having outlined just how life changing this could be, the patience of residents, relatives and providers shouldn’t be expected to stretch too far.”
