FURY AT VACCINE POSTCODE LOTTERY
4m are given their dose but minister fears over-80s are missing out
MINISTERS are pressurising their own Government to end the vaccine postcode lottery amid fears the most vulnerable in some areas are being left behind.
Matt Hancock revealed yesterday that more than 4million people in the UK have now received a vaccine, including more than half of over-80s and care home residents.
The Health Secretary said in some areas the ‘ vast majority’ of people in their 80s have had their first dose. He heaped praise on Slough in Berkshire for having vaccinated all of the town’s elderly care home residents, a feat matched by Newcastle upon Tyne.
But the vaccine programme was questioned by fellow minister Therese Coffey, who said ‘ something isn’t quite right’ about how the roll-out is progressing.
The Work and Pensions Secretary said her constituents in Suffolk had ‘distressing and annoying’ information about younger patients receiving priority for jabs ahead of the more elderly.
She said she has been contacted by people complaining that over-70s appear to be invited ahead of some over-80s and even over-90s. She wrote on social media: ‘ Something is not quite working right yet, particularly in one part of the constituency, as I am hearing from people that 80plus and 90-plus-year- olds have not been contacted while some 70plus patients in the same GP practice were invited for vaccination.
‘I know it is both distressing and annoying when people hear that other cohorts of a lower priority are being vaccinated ahead of our oldest and most vulnerable.’
Official figures revealed 4,062,501 people have received a vaccine – up 225,000 on the previous day.
Millions of over- 70s and the extremely vulnerable will start to be invited for jabs from this week, although officials stressed this will be in areas where the vast majority of over-80s have been reached.
Yet dozens of Daily Mail readers have written in to tell their stories of frustration, with many fearing they have been overlooked.
Ruth Wide, 98, who worked as a hospital radiographer during the Second World War, has still to hear from her GP practice in Bognor Regis, West Sussex. Her son Marcus, 72, is worried she has been overlooked but has followed the advice not to contact the surgery directly. He said: ‘There is no way to check whether somebody tried to call but failed to get through.’
Family doctors have suggested supplies being sent to massvaccination centres would be better diverted to local GP surgeries. Dr Helen Salisbury, a GP in Oxford, said mass-vaccination sites were intended for the younger population and should not be used while there are capacity constraints.
She said: ‘It’s a big risk to make elderly people travel for long periods in a car with another person and even riskier to take public transport to their appointment.’
Dr Jess Harvey, a Shropshire GP, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I appreciate there might be issues getting the vaccine out, and maybe just an honest approach with that would be helpful. Tell the public that not everyone will get the vaccine because there isn’t enough.’
Last night the Government insisted the roll- out programme was ‘on track’ to vaccinate the 13.5million most vulnerable by mid-February.
Boris Johnson said over-80s and those living in care homes were still an ‘absolute priority’. During a visit to Oxfordshire, the Prime Minister said: ‘We’re getting it out as fast as we can.’
Mr Hancock vowed that supplies of both Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines are being prioritised to areas behind in the roll-out.
He told a Downing Street press conference: ‘We’re prioritising the supply of the vaccine into those parts of the country that need to complete the over-80s.’