Recommendation 25

The NAO report highlighted that future staffing was a major risk for the programme as a whole, due to staff burnout and the lack of surplus capacity in the healthcare system more generally.60 This was echoed by evidence provided to the Committee by the Royal College of Nursing and pharmacy representatives.61 Our own recent report looking at NHS backlogs and waiting times highlighted the particular strains on the GP workforce, who have delivered around half of all COVID-19 vaccinations to date.62 It will be a considerable challenge to maintain convenience and accessibility to COVID-19 52 Q 55 53 Qq 67–69 54 Q 69 55 Letter from NHS England to all Integrated Care System (ICS) Leads, Next steps for the NHS COVID-19 vaccination programme planning and delivery, 23 February 2022 NHS England COVID-19 planning statement, Planning parameters for 2022/23, 23 February 2022 56 Qq 36–37 57 Qq 36–37 58 Q37 59 RCP0008 Note dated March 2022 from the Company Chemists’ Association, page 6 60 C&AG’s Report, para 17 61 RCP0006 Note dated March 2022 from Royal College of Nursing point 1.4, RCP0004 Note dated March 2022 from Boots UK, page 2, RCP0008 Note dated March 2022 from the Company Chemists’Association, pages 3–4, 6 62 Committee of Public Accounts’ Report, NHS Backlogs and waiting times, Forty-Fourth Report of Session 2021–22, HC 747, 16 March 2022, recommendation 4; C&AG’s Report, The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination programme in England, Session 2021–22, HC 1106, 25 February 2022, para 3.10 and Figure 17 16 The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine programme in England vaccinations while giving staff the chance to recharge and return to their normal, equally important, roles. We know that NHS England has already taken some central action, including the maintenance of national contracts for volunteer responders.63 At the session, NHS England told us that in the longer term it wanted to retain the staffing capacity it had built for future vaccination and similar public health programm