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The GP who visited the health secretary to mark the expanded rollout of the Oxford / AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine has yet to receive any of that.
Matt Hancock was at Bloomsbury Surgery in Camden, north London, on Thursday as the government plans to offer a COVID-19 jab to the most vulnerable in the middle of next month intensified.
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Dr. Ammara Hughes says she informed the health secretary of the late delivery.
But GP Ammara Hughes said the first application of the jab to surgery was delayed 24 hours.
She said: “We were expecting our first AstraZeneca 400 today, but we’ve had a setback for 24 hours, so now we’ll get that delivery tomorrow.”
Dr Hughes added: “It’s more frustrating than a concern, because we have the capacity to vaccinate and if we had a regular supply, we have the capacity to vaccinate three to four thousand patients a week.
“We’ve been running since mid-December and on our busiest days we can easily vaccinate 500 people.
“If we could get the AstraZeneca then we could easily vaccinate 500 a day, which would ease the pressure on the health service and we could vaccinate more and more people quickly and hopefully get out of the pandemic.”
When asked if she had raised the issue with the health secretary, Dr. Hughes said yes.
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“The Secretary of Health was quite surprised to learn that we do not know when all our deliveries will arrive, they are very ad hoc,” he continued.
“He has said he will withdraw it and investigate it and see if we can ensure regular deliveries.”
Dr. Hughes said the surgery had been administering the Pfizer vaccine since mid-December and had received three deliveries of that vaccine so far.
“So we continue to vaccinate with Pfizer in surgery, and what we hope to do with AstraZeneca when it arrives is go to the most clinically vulnerable and homebound. So that’s what we’ll be doing.” She explained.
“We will not begin to vaccinate during surgery with our AstraZeneca doses until we have finished our Pfizer vaccines.”
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Sky News has contacted the Health Department for a response to Dr. Hughes’ comments.
Speaking prior to surgery, Hancock said it was “great news” that the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine was being implemented in GP surgeries.
He added: “During the first three days with the Oxford vaccine we did it in hospitals, to check that it worked well and that it worked well, so now we can make sure that it reaches all those general practitioner surgeries that can do all vaccines that are needed. .
“The step that limits the rate is the supply of vaccines and we are working with companies, both Pfizer and, of course, AstraZeneca, to increase the supply.
“I want to thank all the GPs who have worked hard to get the vaccine out so far and now they are going to get more vaccines so they can vaccinate all those vulnerable groups.”
