Retired Gurkhas wait their turn while spare batches ‘sit in fridge’
RETIRED Gurkhas have complained of being ignored by the NHS for Covid vaccinations despite hundreds of doses apparently going spare near their homes.
More than 400 ex-gurkhas living in the Greenwich area of London are among pensioners yet to be invited amid questions over the speed of the NHS booking system.
Rajen Kandel, group director of the NHS Woolwich late night pharmacy, said he had enough Oxford vaccine doses “sitting in the fridge” to inoculate nearly 400 people every day but only 50 people were being booked in by the NHS daily. He added that the over-70s overlooked for jabs included hundreds of ex-gurkhas, many of whom moved to the area after winning the right to settle in the UK in 2009.
Mr Kandel said: “We have more than 1,000 doses of the Oxford vaccine but hardly anyone to vaccinate. The vaccine is sitting in the fridge.”
Prem Jung Shahi, vice-president of the Greenwich Gurkha Ex-servicemen Association, urged the NHS to invite his members to take up the hundreds of jabs going spare.
“It is difficult for us because we know there are vaccines available nearby but the NHS are not sending us the letters,” he told The Telegraph. “The NHS seems to be moving very slowly.”
A spokesman for the NHS in London said: “Like other people aged 70 and over in London, retired members of the
Brigade of Gurkhas are being invited to book an appointment, following the Government confirming last week that people in this age group should now be contacted.
“People can then choose whether they get vaccinated at a community pharmacy, one of the 50 large-scale sites or at their local Gp-led service.”
Meanwhile it was reported Milly
Dowler’s killer, Levi Bellfield, had been offered the coronavirus jab at his highsecurity prison. Bellfield, 52, who was found guilty of the murder of the 13-yearold in 2011, was among inmates at Frankland prison, in County Durham, said to have received a letter saying he would be vaccinated in the coming weeks, The Sun reported. Ministers are understood to have ordered an urgent review.