Nurses claim bosses jump vaccine queue
COMMUNITY nurses claim home-working bosses are being vaccinated while frontline staff continue to wait for their jabs.
One East Dunbartonshire nurse said superiors in non patient-facing roles had “jumped the queue” while she works in fear visiting several patients a day.
The whistleblower, who did not want to be named, said staff had raised concerns with management over the length of time they were waiting to be vaccinated.
They then learned bosses at Kirkintilloch Health and Care Centre had already been seen.
The nurse said: “We were told last week there were no appointments for us and we weren’t being classed as first priority and would have to wait.
“We then found out our team leaders and senior nurses, who are office-based and many working from home, have been given the vaccine.
“We’ve now been sent a link for appointments but when we logged on a lot of the appointments had already gone.
“Some staff aren’t being given vaccinations until January 16.
“We feel like others have been given priority over us. It’s disgusting.”
She added: “You feel so unsafe because we’re going into so many patients’ homes. We’re doing everything we can to stay safe but you can only do so much. We feel like we’re not being put first.”
Meanwhile, healthcare administrators in Glasgow are among those due to be vaccinated at the Louisa Jordan hub next week, raising more questions over why other frontline staff are still waiting.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde insisted it was “strictly adhering” to the Scottish Government’s prioritisation guidelines for the vaccine roll out.
It said: “In line with this guidance and following a risk assessment, any member of staff – clinical or non-clinical – who either directly works on, or is deemed to have contact with a Covid-19 red pathway, can receive the vaccine.
“This includes staff working in our Community Assessment Centres. The risk assessment also allows for high-risk, BAME and staff over the age of 65 to be vaccinated.
“We would like to thank everyone who has taken the opportunity to be vaccinated so far. We have had a very high uptake of the vaccine so far with thousands of eligible staff and care home residents vaccinated already.
“We are looking forward to rolling out vaccinations into the community, including people over the age of 80 from next week.”
Scotland’s race to beat coronavirus has stepped up, with 1000 vaccination centres poised to be operational, more than 100,000 jabs already given and nearly one million doses about to arrive.
But this week brought the worst day ever for Covid-19 cases, with 2649 people testing positive on Thursday. That has been put down largely to the faster spreading new variant.
All over-80s are expected to be invited for vaccination in the coming weeks, while it’s hoped all over-50s will have their jabs by May.