Are GPs the best choice to give booster jabs?

CAN the powers-that-be explain why GPs have to drop everything and concentrate on booster jabs, when anyone with a bit of training could give them? Nurses, first aiders, military personnel, St John Ambulance volunteers, the Red Cross, retired NHS staff and many others could be brought up to speed at short notice and get the job done without involving hard-pressed family doctors. Let GPs get on with the vital work we desperately need. Talk about using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

J.M. HAINES, address supplied. THE Government has decided to add to GPs’ income by handing them extra money for every booster injection given. Yet it is normally the practice nurse or a trained healthcare assistant who actually gives the jabs, and they won’t see any extra money. The public would be amazed at all the payments GPs get for doing what used to be part of their normal workload — extras for prescribing statins and holding clinics for diabetes, asthma, etc. It has been extremely difficult to see a GP face-to-face during the pandemic, but now GPs are accepting this as the norm, so more serious illnesses are being missed. And they wonder why hospital A&E departments are overrun.

WILLIAM SMITH, Carlisle, Cumbria. SINCE both voluntary and paid vaccinators can be trained to jab people, why are GPs needed to administer boosters? Surely it is much more important for them to engage with their patients again.

SHEILA REED, Bristol. SO DOCTORS have agreed to prioritise vaccinating the public against Covid, to the detriment of their patients. Would they have agreed to this if the Government hadn’t agreed to pay them £15 per vaccination? I doubt it. Vaccinating could be carried out by volunteers, who I’m sure would willingly attend an induction on how to administer the vaccine. This would speed up the rollout, save millions and allow doctors to get on with the day job.

Name supplied, Sandwich, Kent.