Source · Select Committees · Health and Social Care Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Deferred
Paragraph: 19
Consult on amending regulations to give students and retired staff roles in immunisation.
Recommendation
To ensure that nobody misses out on vital vaccine protection because of practical challenges such as convenient times or locations, a more flexible delivery model, that makes the most of the wide range of healthcare professionals, is needed. We recommend that the Government carries out a consultation on whether to amend the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 to give medical and nursing students, and recently retired staff, a greater role in routine immunisation delivery.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government deflected the recommendation, responding by referencing Lord O’Shaughnessy's review of commercial clinical trials and outlining commitments to improve their speed, instead of addressing a consultation on routine immunisation delivery.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
19
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is working closely with UKHSA and NHS England to improve access to our world-leading immunisation system and protect public health. This includes reviewing how the use of unregistered medical health professionals (including medical and nursing students and recently retired previously registered health professionals) can continue to support vaccine delivery, learning the lessons from their role in the COVID-19 vaccination programme. As part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, amendments to the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 were laid in Parliament on 16 October 2020 to provide regulatory flexibility to support the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign and upscale the influenza vaccination programme in the UK, while protecting public safety. These amendments followed a public consultation held from 28 August to 18 September 2020. Following the consultation, amendments were made to Regulation 247A (R247A) which enabled the use of an expanded workforce legally and safely able to administer a COVID-19 or influenza vaccine without the input of a prescriber, when an approved national protocol was in place. This included those who are registered healthcare professionals who cannot ordinarily administer medicines or vaccines without the input of a prescriber (such as nursing associates, pharmacy technicians, operating department practitioners) and non- registered healthcare workers (such as assistant practitioners, healthcare assistants or maternity support workers). Medical and nursing students, as well as retired staff, were able to support the vaccination effort through signing up to non-registered healthcare roles. Condition A of R247A requires for there to be a pandemic in order to use an expanded workforce. Given that this condition will no longer apply at some point, as COVID-19 transitions to endemic state, DHSC launched a consultation on 7 August 2023 which includes the option to amend further regulations 247A of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 for COVID-19 and influenza vaccine3. The consultation ran for 6 weeks and closed on 18 September 2023. As part of the consultation the government is suggesting that a time limited amendment (covering until April 2026) is made to the regulation to remove condition A. This amendment will allow for R247A to be used outside of pandemic status for COVID-19. This would support the ongoing use of registered and non-registered 3 Amendments to regulations 3A, 19 and 247A of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 to support the ongoing delivery of COVID-19 and influenza vaccination - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) healthcare professionals. We therefore expect, as part of this consultation to hear views on the ongoing use of an expanded workforce (such as medicine and nursing students and retired professionals) in the delivery of COVID-19 and influenza vaccinations. Alongside this consultation to support short term changes to the regulation, we are also working closely with system partners including NHS England, UKHSA, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the Devolved Governments to explore options for a longer-term solution which would permit the continued use of an expanded workforce to deliver national vaccine campaigns. This will include a consideration of how medical and nursing students, and retired staff can continue to be utilised in a way that best support their needs as well as any future vaccination programme.
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