Fury over ‘chaotic’ start to Covid and flu autumn jab rollouts: Pharmacies and GPs hit out at health chiefs as jab deliveries fail to show up
- EXCLUSIVE: England’s drive began yesterday after being accelerated by a month
- Up to 30m people are eligible to receive a flu jab and 25m for Covid vaccines
- READ MORE: Autumn Covid booster: Who is eligible? Can you book them now?
Britain’s booster jab drive threatened to descend into chaos just one day after the autumn roll-out kicked off due to a lack of doses at surgeries and chemists.
GPs today warned that they may have insufficient Covid and flu vaccines after a string of delivery cancellations to practices.
Meanwhile, pharmacists have been left ‘frantic’ and worried they don’t have enough doses for the upcoming campaign.
Industry leaders today slammed the ‘chaotic decision making’ by NHS England, with pharmacy teams also reporting ‘very patchy and disorganised’ jab distribution.
However, the NHS is adamant there are enough jabs to go around.
Covid and flu vaccines will only be offered to over-65s this winter, health chiefs confirmed. In a bid to ‘go back to normal’, invites won’t be dished out to millions aged 50-64 who were eligible during the pandemic
GPs have warned they may have insufficient Covid and flu vaccines after a string of delivery cancellations to surgeries. Meanwhile, pharmacists have been left ‘frantic’ and worried they don’t have enough doses for the upcoming campaign
Up to 30million people are eligible to receive a flu jab and 25million for Covid vaccines this year.
Care home residents and those who are housebound in England will be offered both vaccines this week, with the NHS inviting more eligible people to come forward from next Monday.
Among those invited for top-up doses are the over-65s, frontline health and social care workers and pregnant women.
The scheme, which was due to be launched in October, was brought forward by an entire month to boost protection among the most vulnerable amid fears that the Pirola Covid strain would trigger a fresh wave of infection and overwhelm the NHS.
But Dr Azeem Majeed, a GP in south London and head of primary care and public health at Imperial College London, warned of delays and cancellations to Covid vaccine deliveries.
Read more: Autumn Covid booster: Who is eligible and can you book them now?
He told MailOnline: ‘I am hearing anecdotal reports of delayed or cancelled Covid vaccine deliveries but it’s difficult to say how widespread the problem is.
‘My own practice in Clapham, via our local GP Federation, will start vaccinating people in care homes this week.
‘It is important that vaccines arrive as scheduled as general practices will have arranged clinics — or in the case of care home, arranged to visit — rostered staff to vaccinate, and booked in patients.
He added: ‘Having to cancel clinics at the last minute because of a failure to receive vaccines means that a lot of effort has been wasted and is also very inconvenient and demoralising for patients.’
Senior GPs have also taken to social media sites including X, formerly known as Twitter, to share their frustrations over delivery cancellations.
One revealed that two deliveries to their surgery had failed to turn up.
They were then informed it couldn’t be confirmed when a batch of jabs would arrive.
Health chiefs have bragged about there being around 3,500 sites across England — more sites than ever before — involved in the top-up campaign.
Last year, the NHS carried out its second biggest ever flu vaccination campaign, with more than 21million flu vaccinations given to adults and children, while more than 17million covid jabs were delivered last winter.
But Dr Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies, told MailOnline: ‘This year’s vaccination rollout has been a shambles’.
She added: ‘There are lots of uncertainties on vaccine supply due to the chaotic decision making by the authorities and the rushed roll out, and systems not being able to cope.
‘The distribution is very patchy and disorganised, even within the same regions.
‘We have some pharmacies that have received some stock but others are still waiting.’
The online platform, Outcomes4Health, used by the country’s 11,500 community pharmacies to record and manage services such as flu vaccinations, has also been riddled with issues, she claimed.
Hospital admissions and numbers of beds occupied by Covid patients had also been rising. Latest NHS data shows daily Covid hospital admissions have risen almost 30 per cent since June, with a seven-day rolling average of 322 as of August 25, compared to 251 on June 7
Teams have been left unable to login, while Q-flow, an online platform used by staff at vaccination sites to create and manage appointments, is ‘constantly crashing and unusable’, she added.
‘It’s just frantic at the moment and it’s made it hard for many to plan because they don’t know when the stock will turn up,’ Dr Hannbeck said.
NHS England however told MailOnline today there is enough vaccine stock available.
It dishes out jabs to integrated care boards (ICB) teams — a group in charge of care in a local area. They then deliver the doses to each vaccine hub in proportion to how many people each site serves.
The push for 30million in England to come forward for Covid and flu jabs comes ahead of an expected spike in cases as the nation heads into the colder months.
Global cases of the Pirola have doubled in the last week and has now been detected in the UK, US, Israel, Denmark, South Africa , Portugal, Sweden, France, Canada, Thailand and Switzerland. Health experts fear it is rapidly spreading worldwide undetected
Eligible groups will be able to book their jabs from September 18 through the NHS website, the NHS App or by calling 119.
The health service U-turned on its date to start delivering the jabs to those eligible, bringing it forwards amid concerns about a mutant variant, nicknamed Pirola.
Some 34 cases of the Omicron spin-off, scientifically known as BA.2.86, have been confirmed in England.
But officials warn the true scale of the outbreak is much larger and that it is spreading in the community undetected.
Yet the Covid and flu rollout this year will see fewer Brits eligible for a Covid jab in comparison to last year.
In August, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which guides ministers on jab rollouts, said invites will no longer be dished out to millions aged 50-64, in a bid to ‘go back to normal’.
At the time scientists labelled the move ‘troubling’ and ‘short-sighted’, warning cases could again shoot up.
On Friday, a group of cross-party MPs wrote to ministers urging them to extend the booster programme allowing over-50s to have the jab.
Members of the all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus, led by Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, called on the Government to make Covid jabs publicly available to buy privately, like the flu vaccine.
However, health sources have said there are currently no plans to widen the availability of vaccines.
And there is currently no way for Brits to get the jab privately.
But, high street pharmacies have indicated that they are interested in offering the jab in the future — though insiders believe jabs won’t be ready this way until spring at the earliest.
While virologists have warned it is too early to reliably pinpoint BA.2.86 specific symptoms, its ancestor BA.2 had some tell-tale signs. Experts aren’t yet certain, however if it behaves like similar Omicron subvariants, the signs to watch out for include a runny nose, sore throat and fatigue
While the variant has not been classified as a ‘variant of concern’ yet by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), it has said it is monitoring the strain closely. This UKHSA graphic shows the number of Pirola cases by date the test containing the infected sample was received. Cases surged on August 26 shortly after the start of the care home outbreak in Norfolk
Last autumn, 40 per cent for people in their early 50s took up the offer of a booster, rising to 52 per cent for those in their later 50s.
Those aged over 75 had a greater turnout for the boosters, with 80 per cent opting to receive another vaccine.
Some 70 per cent of over-75s also opted for a spring booster earlier this year.
NHS England is urging eligible people to get both Covid and flu jabs to avoid a potential ‘twindemic’, which would put pressure on the health service.
Of the 34 Pirola cases that have been detected in England to date, 28 came from a single outbreak in a care home in Norfolk, which infected 87 per cent of residents and left one hospitalised.
Health chiefs said this signals a ‘high attack rate’ and could be an early indicator that the strain spreads easily indoors.
UK scientists were first alerted to Pirola on August 14, with concerns immediately triggered due to its large number of mutations.
While only two cases have been confirmed in Scotland, more are suspected as health agencies have detected the variant in wastewater analysis.
No Pirola cases have yet been detected in Wales or Northern Ireland.
In total, five people with confirmed Pirola infections have so far required hospitalisation, though UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) analysts last week said no deaths have been recorded.
Experts have also told MailOnline the data suggests that the Omicron sub-variant is more transmissible than its predecessors but that it is no more severe.
However, the true scale of the UK’s outbreak is unclear.
Brits are no longer testing en masse like they were earlier in the pandemic — with free community mass testing ending in May 2022.
It means fewer cases are being detected and sequenced — a process which reveals the variant behind an infection.
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