Blood cancer patients yet to be offered planned third jab

THE NHS has failed to meet its own deadline on supplying third Covid vaccine doses to vulnerable groups as it emerged over half of blood cancer patients are yet to be offered the jab.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised people who are immunocompromised should be offered a third dose because their weakened immune systems make them less likely to be protected from the first two doses.

After the plan was approved by the Government in September, NHS England told GPS and hospital teams to contact eligible patients by Oct 11 and offer a third dose.

But more than half of blood cancer patients (56.6 per cent) are yet to be offered the extra vaccination, according to a Blood Cancer UK survey.

The survey found that around 200,000 of the half a million immunocompromised people in the UK are yet to receive the offer. Patients have been forced to resort to turning up at mass vaccination centres. Others said their GP practices did not know about the third dose rollout and some doctors and hospital teams wanted to provide the jab but did not know how to record it.

The charity said the delay to the third dose roll out could result in the hospitalisation or death of blood cancer patients.

Gemma Peters, chief executive for Blood Cancer UK, said: “The rollout of the third doses for the immunocompromised has been a failure that was poorly planned. People with blood cancer are seeing the third dose as something that could be the difference between life and death.”

NHS England wrote to hospitals and primary care teams on Sept 30 asking them to identify eligible patients and offer them the jab.

It will now write to these patients directly to ensure they are offered the dose and “ensure no one is missed”, a spokesperson said.