Friday, 11 December 2020

Rolling Back the Roll-Out?

It looks as if the second stage of the Covid-19 vaccination programme in England won't be as easily choreographed as was seen in the first week of operation (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/dec/11/gp-practices-england-opt-out-covid-vaccine-rollout). This second phase is intended to involve General Practioners (GPs) in their centres but some, in Lincolnshire, Manchester, Sussex, Thames Valley and Yorkshire have already opted out. This currently means that around 100,000 patients will have to be vaccinated elsewhere. The main 'bone of contention' is the agreement with the British Medical Association. GP practises running a vaccination programme will have to operate from 08:00 to 20:00 hours for 7 days a week. There will also have to be a 15 minute, post-injection observation of each patient (after 2 hospital workers showed 'allergic' responses to the Pfiser vaccine in the first week). The GPs, whilst by no means wanting to discourage the vaccination roll-out, say that they simply don't have the staff to do the injections, whilst continuing to deliver other necessary services to their patients. There appears to be an inherent tendency to load more and more responsibilities on to already busy people.

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