Get ready for vaccine in just three weeks, UK’s hospitals told

HEALTH chiefs are ramping up preparations to roll out a coronavirus vaccine to the most vulnerable people within three weeks.

Jon Findlay, head of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, is understood to have told a meeting last week of his executives and senior managers from other large London hospitals that a vaccine could be distributed before the end of the month.

It would be available for care home residents, the over-80s and frontline healthcare staff.

The development comes a fortnight after this newspaper revealed plans were being drawn up for frontline NHS staff to be vaccinated within weeks, and the Government had introduced laws to bypass the EU approval process if a safe and effective jab is ready before the end of the Brexit transition period on December 31.

The Mail on Sunday understands that Guy’s and St Thomas’, along with King’s

College Hospital in South London, would become ‘vaccine hubs’, with staff recruited to become part of a ‘vaccine taskforce’.

It is understood that a list of more than 500 locations in the UK will be operational by December.

The Government has already struck deals to buy 350 million doses of the six different Covid19 vaccines being developed.

Last night, an NHS spokesman said: ‘GPs will play an important part in delivering a Covid vaccine as soon as it is ready and exact arrangements, which will be announced shortly, will include funding to reflect the complex logistics and preparation required.’