Warning to virus queue jumpers
SCHOOL staff in Rochdale have been warned about jumping the queue for Covid vaccinations.
Evidence some may have been gaming the system to get a jab ahead of more vulnerable priority groups has been reported by The Mill.
A leaked email from Rochdale council to all headteachers in the borough said some staff had been using an ‘inappropriately-shared’ link intended only for NHS workers.
Sent by Gail Hopper, head of children’s services, it claims the practice could scupper the borough’s attempts to hit its vaccination targets – and even lead to doses being withheld by the government.
The message reads: “Rochdale has a tight target to vaccinate all care home residents and staff, residents over 75 years and ‘clinically extremely vulnerable’ residents, along with NHS and social care staff by February 15 – if sufficient vaccine supplies reach us.
“This is a really challenging target. For every vaccine given to someone outside the priority groups, the risk is increased of our most vulnerable residents being delayed in receiving it.”
It continues: “The publicity of this happening would be very damaging for the borough. It will also increase the risk that NHSE cancels future supplies until it can be assured that the borough follows the required process.
“This would be disastrous, given the success so far in delivering up to 1,200 daily vaccinations.”
Ms Hopper says she sympathises with those who feel school-based staff should have been given higher priority by the government – and the council continues to lobby ministers to that effect.
But she adds that it ‘cannot be right’ that individuals use unauthorised routes when to do so denies others with entitlement.
“The question that I would ask is how would any of us feel if, by one of our colleagues accessing a vaccination, our mother or father was denied?” she writes.
“We know that by it being shared, some school-based staff (and others), who are not part of the priority groups identified by government, have booked appointments. Indeed some [have] been vaccinated. Others are now planning to do the same.”
The email closes by asking those who have booked appointments through the link to ‘swiftly’ cancel them, so they can be offered to people in priority groups.
It also says that action has been taken to close the booking loophole by requiring health and social care staff to bring ID and a letter that matches that ID from their employer to their vaccination.
A spokesman for Rochdale council confirmed that the email was sent to the borough’s schools.
The statement added: “This letter was about a wider concern over the vaccination booking link being shared inappropriately, which has happened in many areas of the country.
“The letter is not about a problem at a specific school but an attempt to prevent abuse of the system.”