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Community Pharmacy England (CPE) has asked NHS England to compensate pharmacies for appointments which were booked for patients to have a Covid vaccine before it changed the eligibility criteria.

Their decision to change the criteria increased the pressure on already besieged pharmacies as people booked jabs through the national booking system and turned up believing they were eligible for a Covid and flu vaccine.

Last year, the Covid vaccine was offered for free to anyone aged 65 and over and people with chronic or long-term conditions. However, it is now available to those who turn 75 before January 2026 as well as older care homes residents and the immunosuppressed.

The criteria change has left many people unable to get vaccinated, such as diabetics, people with heart disease, respiratory illnesses, asthma and severe mental illness.

Pharmacies across the country would have had to order and pay for vaccine stock ahead of the October 1 start date and there have been reports that Covid and flu vaccination appointments, which normally take five minutes, have taken 20 minutes because of confusion over who is eligible.

Insisting it has been in contact with NHS England since October 1 about “ongoing issues pharmacy owners are facing”, CPE said: “This has been a deeply frustrating time for pharmacy owners, with knock-on financial impacts as well as significant challenges for their teams to address.

“We have been raising a significant number of concerns about the impact on pharmacy owners and their teams, including the administrative burden, financial costs, impact on teams and damage to relations with the public.”

CPE said its pressure on NHS England prompted it to take steps, such as messaging everyone who made a booking through the national booking system and contacting GPs. CPE said it is waiting to hear back on its request for compensation.

“As a sector already in financial crisis, pharmacies can little afford to waste time, effort and money, on appointments which have been booked by patients, but which then cannot be undertaken as expected,” said CPE chief executive Janet Morrison.

“And this is why we have sought compensation for pharmacy owners from the NHS: pharmacies cannot continue to pay the price for problems that are entirely of someone else’s making.”