Covid jabs for the over-75s setback
SUPPLY ISSUE HAMPERS ROLL-OUT
VACCINATIONS due to be given to people aged between 75 and 79 in Nottinghamshire are being halted temporarily due to supply issues.
A health boss described the “lumpy supply” of doses as having an effect on the vaccine roll-out in Nottinghamshire while also admitting there was “more for us to do” to reach relevant groups.
It was confirmed at a Public Health briefing that the county only received its supply of vaccinations to go out in centres from January 4, despite planning to start much earlier.
This has led to teams “playing catch-up” on vaccinations but also not being in a position to move on to cohort 3 - the over-75 population.
This is despite people in the 75 to 79 age group receiving letters yesterday asking them to book an appointment – only to find out there were none available.
Officials say they “expect to clarify” the situation in the coming days and will then inform people in the over75s category of the programme how they will move forward.
Dr Andy Haynes the executive lead for the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care System, said the picture would improve in the coming days and to “bear with us” as new vaccination centres open.
He said phone lines were busy but over-80s are now being encouraged to come forward to make an appointment for their vaccine - despite previously being told to wait to receive a letter.
The Post reported earlier this week how the NHS now says anyone over 80 who has not yet received their letter can book online using https:// www.swiftqueue.co.uk/nottinghamc19vpatient.php or by calling 0115 883 4640.
Dr Haynes said housebound residents in this age category would be contacted over the next two weeks to be visited by roving vaccination teams.
Dr Haynes added: “We were hoping to progress [the over-75s] programme, but as it has been described the supply is a little lumpy at the moment.
“The vaccine we have available is targeted to cohorts 1 and 2 - the care homes and 80-plus population. There’s just one or two issues we need to sort out with vaccine supply for the over-75s so we have suspended that at the moment.
“We expect to clarify that in the coming few days and as soon as that information is available we’ll go back and inform the over-75s of the programme and how we’ll move forward.
“We want to be sure we’ve got the supply of vaccine before we can begin vaccinating them.”
Despite the delay in getting vaccine supplies, Dr Haynes said it is expected that all care home residents will be vaccinated by Sunday night and over-80s by the end of the month.
“We had our local vaccination sites receive our vaccine supplies from January 4 so in a sense we have been playing catch-up - that’s part of the national programme allocation,” Dr Haynes said. “But our capacity is ramping up. “I think the important thing is the rate at which that number is increasing because we’ve started later it’s not a surprise that we’re in the bottom parts of those figures but we’ will reach the target by the end of the month.”
Responding to a question of what led to getting the vaccine supply so late, Dr Hayne said plans were in place from October and had hoped to be running vaccine centres before Christmas.
But supplies were delayed due to the sign-off process by Government.
“The supply resulted in us opening in January,” Dr Haynes said. “So that’s where we’ve planned from and I’ve described how we plan to catch up - we need to not focus too much on one data point.”
He added: “We weren’t at the back of the queue - there’s a signoff process, with a national specification, which we had followed and it was the availability therefore of the approvals process that then allows the vaccine supply to follow.”
Dr Haynes added: “Again our plea is don’t block the line - wait and we will contact you once we’re clear about when this is progressing.”