THE Scottish Government has faced criticism over the roll-out and supply of the Covid-19 vaccine over the past couple of weeks. The First Minister herself admitted it was “bumpy” – after I flagged patch supply concerns of my own. But credit must be given where it is due and things seem to be improving, and we – general practitioners at least – are feeling a bit more positive about our role in all of this.
I have been clear in my position that this is a race – the vaccine versus the virus – but it is a long-distance race, it’s not a sprint. We always knew this wouldn’t be easy as this is the biggest vaccine programme ever undertaken.
So the vaccine is coming through – in some cases in small amounts of 100 doses at a time which makes planning difficult, in other instances I’m hearing of practices receiving 500 doses in one delivery.
That may seem inconsistent on the surface, but it’s important to remember that many health boards will be allocating doses based on the number of over-80s each practice has to vaccinate. That’s not to say all big practices are getting big deliveries – some are still waiting on the delivery that will allow them to do a big clinic, but I believe we are making progress, and at this stage I am fairly confident we will be able to vaccinate the entire 80-plus group by the deadline which was set by the Scottish Government of February 5.
The bigger challenge is going to be the next phase of the vaccination programme, priority groups three and four, which is moving on to the over 70 age group and those who are deemed to be extremely clinically vulnerable – for example transplant patients, people with diabetes and other medical issues.
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That is a much larger number of patients to vaccinate and there are many variables involved in stating if that will be done on time: vaccine supply is one of them, but capacity of the vaccinators will really kick in at this stage and we will need the mass vaccination centres to be operating at full steam by then. But it’s looking positive as we’re seeing more centres being announced.
Having all people in those priority groups vaccinated with their first dose by the middle of February is ambitious, it’s a challenge but I know the NHS workforce, and the new volunteers involved in rolling out this vaccination programme, stand ready to get jags into arms as soon as possible.
Just as people are keen to be vaccinated, we are champing at the bit to get on with the roll-out. It’s hard work, but it really is hugely rewarding to play such a vital role in the fight against Covid-19 and, working together, I am confident we can deliver it.
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