Anger at waste of almost 1,000 vaccine doses
ANSWERS are being demanded after almost 1,000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine meant for Macclesfield’s most clinically vulnerable residents had to be thrown away.
A batch of the PfizerBioNTech, containing 975 doses, delivered to Waters Green Medical Centre was found to be unusable, it has been was revealed.
The same number of people, who were scheduled to have the vaccine, will now not get it until a later date.
The problem was caused by issues refrigerating the vaccine, which needs to be kept at -70 degrees centigrade and then 2-8 degrees at vaccination centres for up to five days.
One pensioner, who wished not to be named, was due to get the jab but was called by Waters Green staff two hours before his appointment to be told this was not possible.
He says that he must now go in three weeks time when what would have been his second of the two necessary shots will now be the first.
The pensioner said: “They rang to say sorry they’d have to cancel because of a technical hitch.
“They said it was to do with refrigeration.
”I am now subject to further risk, my family is not very happy and I am worried, I’ve cancelled all my plans including interfamily contact as permitted over Christmas.
”I’m now going to be spending Christmas on my own. I’d have taken the risk if I’d had the scheduled injection and had some of these antibodies generating.”
Whether the refrigeration problems happened at the medical centre or before the vaccines arrived there has not been confirmed.
Waters Green, on Sunderland Street, houses six GP surgeries - Cumberland House Practice, High Street Surgery, Park Green Surgery, Park Lane Surgery, South Park Surgery and Broken Cross Surgery.
It is overseen by NHS Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group, which has apologised for the ‘temporary issue’ and says it is being resolved.
Although the vaccine roll out has begun it is initially being offered to a relatively small number of people because of its short supply.
Patients are being invited for the vaccine in a specific order, based on the risk from Covid-19 they face.
A woman whose mum was among those cancelled said: “My mum is in a terrible state.
“She can’t see her grandchildren until she has had the vaccine and was really looking forward to that, so to get this at the 11th hour has caused massive distress.
”A thousand people would have felt more confident to see their relatives, this is not good for Macclesfield.
”We went from excited to deflated and want to know why this happened. We need to have answers and people need to learn from their mistakes.”
A spokesman for NHS Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group said: “We apologise for any inconvenience and disappointment caused to patients.
“This temporary issue is being resolved and patients should continue to come forward for their vaccination when they are asked to attend.” The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is said to be 95 per cent effective. The Waters Green website reiterates that it has met strict regulatory standards of safety, quality and effectiveness.
NHS England was also contacted for comment.