AAH NAMED SOLE DISTRIBUTOR FOR NHS SCOTLAND FLU JAB PROGRAMME
McKesson UK’s wholesale arm AAH has been appointed as sole provider of seasonal influenza vaccines to community pharmacies throughout Scotland for the next twelve months.
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AH made the announcement on November 12 on Twitter, informing community pharmacies across NHS
Scotland’s fourteen regional health boards that it would be the exclusive distributor of the vaccines until October 2022.
The company will be supplying four different types of flu vaccine from Seqirus and Sanfoi Aventis, along with associated consumables. The Vaccine Transformation Programme (VTP) has been working across Scotland in conjunction with the fourteen NHS Health Boards and primary care facilities in order to develop proposals for delivery of vaccination programmes in the future.
Additionally, Enterprise – the e-commerce platform of AAH – has introduced a new 48-hour delivery service: one, which has been warmly welcomed by community pharmacies across the region.
News of AAH’s appointment as souls provider has come as the Scottish government announced
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that the COVID-19 booster programme was to be accelerated after nine cases of the new variant – Omicron – were identified in Scotland.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon informed MSPs that all nine cases were linked to a single event on 20 November and that all those affected were self isolating. Five of the cases are in Lanarkshire, with a further four in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board area.
Prior to the First Minister’s announcement about the Omicron variant, the Scottish government had already said that it had started work on implementing the advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
The JCVI had advised that boosters should be offered to the over-18s and that period between the second dose and the booster should be cut from the current six months to three months.
Children aged between twelve and fifteen will also now be invited for a second jab.
The news was welcomed by Scotland's chief medical officer, Dr Gregor Smith.
‘Scotland has already started work on its implementation, including the recommendation that boosters can now be given to all adults no less than three months after a second dose,’ he said. ‘Urgent talks with health boards and vaccination partners are under way and further information on the delivery of this advice will follow as soon as possible.
In a company statement, AAH said that its new service would enable more frequent deliveries ‘in state-of-the-art AAH temperature-controlled pharma vans’ to help maintain stock levels.
‘Products will be the cheaper or the same price as AAH, when purchased as outers from Enterprise,’ the company said.
To place an order for flu vaccinations, community pharmacies should register for AAH Point or call the AAH customer care team on 0344 561 2266.
AAH WILL BE SUPPLYING FOUR DIFFERENT TYPES OF FLU VACCINE
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