John Bell & Croyden – established in 1798 and pharmacists to Her Majesty the Queen since 1958 – has been chosen by NHS England as a Covid-19 vaccination site.
The pharmacy, which has kept its doors open through two world wars and now a pandemic, is the first McKesson UK community pharmacy to participate in the vaccine rollout. The flagship store in London’s Harley Street Medical Area will help support the Government’s nationwide Covid-19 vaccination programme.
Qualified pharmacy staff at John Bell & Croyden, who have also been delivering rapid Covid-19 tests since December 2020, will administer the vaccines, which will start with priority groups as outlined in the government’s Covid-19 Vaccines Delivery Plan.
Patients will be provided the option to book their vaccination appointment at John Bell & Croyden through the NHS booking system.
Toby Anderson, CEO of McKesson UK, said: “We are extremely proud to be playing our part in the national vaccine effort, with Her Majesty the Queen’s pharmacy being chosen as our first vaccination centre.
“This site has been a trusted partner to its local community for over 200 hundred years and throughout that period has played a leading role in establishing pharmacy as we know it today.
Robin Winfield, Operations Director of John Bell & Croyden, said: “Our experienced and qualified staff have already been administering Covid-19 tests to hundreds of people and will be going the extra mile to ensure people can receive their Covid-19 vaccine over the coming weeks.”
On the 14 January, the first high street pharmacies began administering vaccines across England as part of the Government’s national vaccine rollout plan.
The industry has called on the Government to enable community pharmacies to do more. Current regulation limits sites to those that can deliver a minimum 1000 vaccines a week. Smaller pharmacies from across the UK have asked that these rules are relaxed.
Toby Anderson added: “We are in discussions with the Government to do more, with an offer for LloydsPharmacy to deliver 100,000 vaccines per week across more than 600 sites on the table, if a small adjustment to the rules is made.
“This would ensure that hundreds of thousands of people across England receive the vaccine sooner rather than later.”
“With most people only living 3 miles away from their local pharmacy, it makes complete sense for community pharmacy to play an even bigger role. It is one of the most convenient options for people during this difficult and uncertain time.”
John Bell & Croyden are also a government-approved provider of the latest COVID-19 ‘Test to Release’ programme. The pharmacy was selected by the UK government as one of the few approved providers to offer the testing kits to international travellers arriving in England. This allows travellers to cut their quarantine period if they receive a negative COVID-19 PCR result from Day 4 of arrival onwards.
During the pandemic, the pharmacy also launched a same day and next day coronavirus testing service which is currently available to customers in store. In December, they announced an even faster extension to this service with the launch of a new COVID -19 Antigen Rapid Test Cassette that delivers rapid, accurate results in just 15 minutes. This is available to customers for just £49 making it an affordable solution.
For more information visit: https://johnbellcroyden.co.uk.
