Patients hit by delay for second dose of Covid jabs

PATIENTS from South Derbyshire awaiting their second Covid vaccinaton have seen their appointments delayed.

People set to receive their second jabs later this week at Derby Arena have seen their booking rearranged.

It comes amid a “scheduling problem” that has delayed the delivery of some doses to the Pride Park-based vaccine hub.

Among the surgeries alerting patients to the delay is Melbourne and Chellaston Medical Practice.

The practice posted an update on Facebook on Tuesday afternoon to say Derby Arena had managed to confirm a delivery of vaccines for patients’ first and second doses. But they will not be available until Saturday, March 27, and those booked in for second vaccines today and tomorrow will be contacted to have their appointments rearranged.

Joined Up Care Derbyshire (JUCD) say circumstances beyond the control of the team at the Arena meant they could not be confident the delivery would have arrived in time for some appointments.

A number of patients who were due to receive their second and final dose of the vaccine later this week have therefore seen their appointments delayed by several days.

A spokesman for JUCD, which is an organisation made up of different health agencies across the county, said:

“Due to a scheduling problem for vaccine delivery, staff at Derby Arena have had to re-arrange a number of vaccination appointments for people to receive second doses.

“The appointments had been made well in advance for these patients in line with established national timeframes for second dose vaccine administration and the vaccination teams routinely check that sufficient vaccines are scheduled to be delivered for all bookings.

“In this case, circumstances beyond the control of the team at the Arena meant they could not be confident the delivery would have arrived in time. “To minimise the disruption for patients, the team decided to act quickly and delay these appointments by several days. “This delay is unfortunate, but it is a tribute to the professionalism of the vaccination team at Derby Arena that the problem was identified and addressed as quickly as possible.”

The converted Arena opened its doors as Derbyshire’s largest vaccination site on Thursday, January 7, and has been classified as as mass vaccination centre since January 25.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “Vaccines are being distributed fairly across the UK to make sure the most vulnerable people in society are immunised first. Some parts of the country have made very significant progress and their vaccination totals are above the average.

“We continue to put more supply into areas that have further to go.”

Circumstances beyond the control of the team at the Arena meant they could not be confident the delivery would have arrived in time.