Strangled by red tape

Piles of paperwork for retired GPs who want to help with vaccinations

PLANS for a volunteer army to help vaccinate the population descended into red-tape farce yesterday.

Retired doctors and nurses answering the call to enlist complained they were ordered to show 21 documents including proof they had been on courses to combat racism and terrorism.

They also had to prove they had competence in fire safety, conflict resolution, human rights and data security. They branded the system ‘ridiculous’ and ‘impossible’, while doctors’ leaders demanded a re-think.

But the NHS insisted safety had to come first. In response to the outcry, a Government source last night said ministers were planning to simplify the process of becoming a volunteer.

Health chiefs are recruiting an army of helpers to ramp up vaccination levels. They have called for volunteers to ‘join the NHS Covid-19 vaccine team’, trumpeting: ‘Your NHS needs you’.

But retired doctors who volunteered to return to work have said they are being ignored by the NHS or tied up in bureaucracy. They are being asked to fill out several pages of forms online, before finally being told to upload 21 documents. These include a

‘It is frankly insulting to senior clinicians’

copy of their passport and highest medical qualification, but also certificates on ‘Preventing Radicalisation’ – a course designed to help thwart terrorism – and equality, diversity and human rights.

Former and current NHS staff can fill in any gaps by completing ‘e-learning’ courses online.

Angus Dalgleish, a professor of oncology, said: ‘It is little wonder that there is a delay to starting mass vaccination, which should have begun yesterday. They are wrapping everyone up in red tape.

‘And it is frankly insulting to senior clinicians. The fact is, you don’t need to question the competence of a retired GP or pharmacist. They know what they are doing and you should just thank them for offering to help and let them get on with it. Instead, people are giving up in despair.’

Claire Barker, a GP who ran her own practice for 30 years until she retired in 2017,

need to be more straightforward.’ said: ‘I have spent my life doing Retired dental surgeon Graham jabs like this. It is very frustrating. Odd, of Winchester, said: ‘I

‘I am an intelligent, computersavvy expected some further training for person, but the NHS website this role but, having spent the past takes you up a blind alley. It does two days doing e-learning assessments, I still have many more to do and am beginning to lose the will to continue.’

Professor Martin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said: ‘Requiring people to submit more than 20 pieces of documentation, some of which have low relevance to the task they will be doing... is a deterrent for them getting involved at a time when we need all hands on deck.’ Two million people per week must be inoculated 3 2 to make good on Boris Johnson’s pledge to bring the country back to normality by spring, say experts. Sports stadiums and conference centres are

being lined up as vaccination centres. But the bureaucracy involved in recruiting medical staff to administer the jabs is causing consternation.

Last night the NHS said: ‘it is categorically untrue that there are any delays in Covid vaccination caused by accrediting volunteers or returners.

‘We are delighted that former members of NHS staff have applied to become vaccinators and actually tens of thousands of people have already completed their online training, and these are being processed as quickly as possible.’