Training

In order to be fully equipped for the flu vaccination service, all members of staff should be sufficiently trained. The NPA’s Flu vaccination service implementation guide and PGD training recommendations page advises on the relevant training for each member of staff. If you have pharmacy technicians vaccinating as part of the national protocol, they will also need practical training. More information about this can be found here: Vaccination training for Pharmacy technicians.

In addition, the NPA have the following bite sized training modules available, which give yourself and your teams the opportunity to learn about key topics relevant for flu vaccination services. It is important that all team members are confident with answering questions, within their capacity, so we recommend you work through them to supplement other training you may have completed or as a refresher.

Additional Training Resources

Over 50’s Vaccination
When promoting private flu vaccination services, it is important to highlight the benefit of vaccinations for people over 50 years of age. This one-page guide, will support you in understanding the reason why vaccinating patients in this category is relevant.

Addressing common myths
Patients/ customers often are hesitant about being vaccinated due to common myths or concerns that they may have or have heard of. This guide can act as a crib sheet to support you in addressing such concerns.

Flu vs common cold vs COVID -19

The NPA has a comparison factsheet Pharmacy team guide on Flu vs Common cold vs COVID-19 (2023), which we recommend you read and refer to. This can be accessed on the NPA Vaccination resources page.

Setting Up The Service

In order to be fully equipped for the flu vaccination service, all members of staff should be sufficiently trained. The NPA’s Flu vaccination service implementation guide.

The NPA Advice and Support team also have a range of resources that can support you with service delivery. These can be accessed here

Within this page you can find the support resources such as SOPs, by clicking into the following section shown below:

Resources that are available include:

• SOPs
• Vaccine decision making flow chart
• Patient record forms
• Policies

Please note. There are some SOP templates on this page that may be relevant to all nations. There is also additional country specific information found in the following sections:

• Scotland
• Northern Ireland

Purchasing PGDs

The NPA’s business partners, Pharmadoctor and ECG, offer hay fever services/PGDs. The Pharmadoctor hay fever service can also be purchased as part of the Seasonal Health Package.

The Pharmadoctor hay fever service package that authorises pharmacists to supply the following, allergy related medication, under a PGD:

• Fluticasone propionate, azelastine hydrochloride (Dymista®) 137 micrograms / 50 micrograms per actuation nasal spray
• Azelastine hydrochloride (Rhinolast®) 0.1% w/v nasal spray
• Beclometasone dipropionate (Beconase®) Aqueous Nasal Spray
• Mometasone furoate 50mcg per actuation (Nasonex®)

This service package also includes marketing materials for you to promote the service.

To purchase from Pharmadoctor and obtain your 10% NPA member discount on service packages, please click here for more information.

The ECG paper hay fever PGD authorises the supply of Fexofenadine and/or Dymista

To purchase from ECG training, please click here. Prices are already discounted for NPA members, under the ‘members’ section

Marketing Material

To achieve a successful and profitable service, it is important that you promote your service to patients/customers well. This can be through engagement of customers by staff during transactions or health promotion campaigns. Visual engagement through posters, leaflets, pharmacy tv screen displays and website banners also play an important part in promotion of the service. To support with this, you can download the following posters and social media posts:

Social media posts (Click on images for larger preview to download):

Posters (print ready):

• NPA Flu Poster A3
• NPA Flu Poster A4

A range of marketing materials are also available via our business partners, Pharmadoctor , if you are using its Flu eTool. This includes a posters and videos. You can also grow your online presence and reach a wider audience through our trusted partner Pharmacy Mentor.