Probe as infection rates rise again in two city areas
Concern over vaccine supply to GP networks
A GP given 50 doses of Covid vaccine for 900 eligible patients says his surgery is receiving a “tidal wave” of phone calls from patients wanting their vaccine locally.
Dr Graham Johnson, of Lutterworth’s Wycliffe Medical Practice, sits on the city, county and Rutland’s clinical commissioning groups’ governing body.
He updated health bosses on his experience at a meeting yesterday.
“At our practice, we have 50 vaccination slots to give to patients on Thursday from a supply we’ve had, that is it,” he said.
“We have 210 patients in group six still to vaccinate, 592 in group seven.
“The calls we are getting day in, day out, are patients ringing up moaning that they’ve had their letter and they want the vaccine done locally and we just haven’t got any vaccine.
“I’ve got 50 vaccines to give and 900 people just in groups seven and eight, let alone nine which is another 800 patients and we’re just getting a tidal wave of phone calls and it’s getting worse. The last two weeks have been awful.”
Dr Johnson said that doses being delivered to mass vaccination centres is diverting supply from more local venues, which patients prefer.
“Looking at the latest local data of 327,000 vaccines done so far (in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland), 214,000 in PCNs (primary care networks – essentially groups of GP surgeries), 64,000 in hospital hubs and 25,000 at vaccination centres, so there seems to be a massive disconnect,” he said.
“What I’m hearing and what patients are telling me is that they go to vaccination centres and there’s nobody there, they’ve got vaccine that they don’t know what to do with and the government are sending texts to over-55s telling them to book a vaccine and all roads lead to us. People are asking us when they can have their vaccination locally and we just can’t give them any.”
He added: “There seems to be a disconnect between the number of people the government are telling can have a vaccine, all the local evidence is that the vast majority of people want to go somewhere led by a primary care network, 66 per cent of patients so far have had one done there but there’s no vaccine going to the PCNs, they’re all going to these mass vaccination centres of which only about 8 per cent of patients have used so far.”
Doses due to be delivered to the city’s mass vaccination site at the Peepul Centre have been reallocated on three occasions in an attempt to make it easier to access jabs for patients, health bosses were told.
Professor Azhar Farooqi, clinical chair of Leicester City CCG said: “The vast majority of vaccines have been given by primary care and it’s really sad to see that the vaccine supply to primary care is being limited compared to vaccination centres because it is clear that the vast majority of patients want their vaccine given by their general practice.
“That’s something that is a national issue, it’s not something that is completely within our control and I know that people are lobbying to correct that.”
Rachna Vyas, executive director of integration and transformation at the city, county and Rutland’s clinical commissioning groups, said work is being done to divert deliveries to different sites.
She said: “The team have been as frustrated as governing body members, particularly given the success of our local vaccination sites. “We have done everything that we can to make sure we have as much vaccine in primary care
as possible.”