The Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK (APTUK) has issued new professional guidance around the administration of vaccines. This encourages pharmacy technicians to ensure all legal frameworks, regulation and governance are in place before administration to ensure patient safety and to protect pharmacy technicians. APTUK are awaiting confirmation of the legal framework which would enable this. See APTUK Professional Guidance Regarding Vaccine Administration for details.
Current framework
The current legal framework used by pharmacists to administer vaccines such as influenza vaccine are Patient Group Directions (PGDs). The Human Medicines Regulations 2012 , as amended provides a list of persons who can legally supply or administer medicines against a PGD. Pharmacy technicians are not currently on this list therefore cannot legally administer vaccines using a PGD.
Note: the role of administering a vaccine under a PGD cannot be delegated to other members of staff who are not on the lists of persons who can legally supply or administer medicines from a PGD. For more details see Specialist Pharmacy Service (SPS) Can supply or administration be delegated to another practitioner under a PGD? This means that it would not be possible to delegate the role of administering a vaccine under a PGD to a pharmacy technician at this time.