Qualified vaccine volunteers rejected while GPS cut checks on over-75s

SIR – I am in despair. GP surgeries are now excused from some health screening duties in order to complete Covid booster vaccinations.

Why are fully trained vaccination practitioners not being utilised? I am a nurse (qualified for 41 years), trained and certified to vaccinate. I have been running flu clinics at my place of work.

With my two nursing colleagues I offered my services to the NHS free of charge. We have all been told there are enough vaccinators.

Sarah Morris

Naccolt, Kent

SIR – We agree that “throwing money at GPS” is no panacea to “increasing productivity” (Patrick O’flynn, Comment, telegraph.co.uk). GPS and our teams already work at capacity in a workload and workforce crisis.

General practice is the bedrock of the NHS and needs to be adequately supported to manage the ever-growing demand for care and to ensure that patients are safe. The Government must deliver on its manifesto pledge of an additional 6,000 GPS by 2024 and make the job of being a GP manageable again, so we retain highly trusted, highly trained family doctors in the profession, caring for patients, for as long as possible.

Dr Gary Howsam

Vice Chair, Royal College of GPS London NW1

SIR – I read with interest about the Government’s decision to allow GPS to suspend the annual medical checks for the over-75s (report, December 4).

I am 85 and have never been invited to attend for a medical examination and assessment. Am I the only one or are GPS generally not providing this service?

James Fletcher

Barmby Moor, East Yorkshire

SIR – The local pharmacist gave me the flu jab and booster jabs at the shop. She also gave my disabled wife her flu vaccination at home.

Why are doctors neglecting health checks for the over-75s to do this work when pharmacists and retired medical personnel are trained to administer vaccines?

Ted Bottle

Coalville, Leicestershire

SIR – After trying to understand and navigate the continually changing, Byzantine protocols necessary to undertake a planned trip to France, postponed from December 2020, we have given in and cancelled.

The Government, having decided they are not in a position to ban travel completely, have instead constructed a process which makes it impracticable. The risk is that a positive Covid test immediately before returning to Britain confines you in a foreign country at considerable personal expense.

The pusillanimous politicians and their cabal of doom-mongering scientists have ground me down. How long will this madness be allowed to prevail?

Ian Mackenzie