[ad_1]
GPs are waiting up to a month to receive supplies of this winter’s flu vaccine amid unprecedented numbers of patients seeking injections ahead of the second wave of Covid-19, family physicians have said.
The Royal College of GPs (RCPG) has written to Health Secretary Matt Hancock, asking for assurances that they will have enough doses of the vaccine to meet the demand. The struggle to receive blows has raised fears that vulnerable groups, including the elderly and those with underlying conditions, will be left unprotected.
“We have heard anecdotally that some surgeries are waiting up to a month to replenish vaccines, raising concerns that there are major distribution problems,” Professor Martin Marshall, chairman of the RCGP and family physician in London, said in the letter. .
A GP in Nottingham said there had been “a great uptake compared to previous years, much more than we anticipated” in his surgery among the groups eligible for the free jab, “so supplies ran out quickly.”
“The next delivery is several weeks away and there are patients in risk groups who have to wait. We have a 70-year-old patient with heart disease who wants the vaccine, but currently we don’t have any to give her until the next delivery in mid-to-late October, “said the GP.
The shortage means that people aged 50 to 64, who are being offered a jab for the first time on the NHS, may have to wait until those with the greatest medical need have been vaccinated first.
“While we are more concerned with at-risk groups, such as the elderly, people with long-term conditions, and pregnant women, it is also frustrating that people in the 50-64 age group come forward in good faith, but are face pulled away, ”Marshall said.
Those people are asked to show patience even if they were lost on their first shot. “It is not a question of GPs rationing the vaccine, but rather we must prioritize those most in need and for whom influenza represents the greatest threat.”
Major pharmacies like Boots, Lloyds Pharmacy, and Well Pharmacy recently had to stop accepting reservations while waiting for new supplies.
In his letter, Marshall seems not to believe Hancock’s insistence that the only problems are getting the vaccine to where it is needed, rather than a shortage. In a call for ministers to be “as transparent as possible about shortages,” Marshall adds: “It will not be helpful to practices or acceptable to patients if current claims that there are no supply problems are exposed as too optimistic the next few months”.
Dr Helen Salisbury, a GP in Oxford and a columnist for the BMJ, said: “Our first problem is that the number of people in traditionally eligible groups wanting the vaccine has increased as people are more aware of the dangers of viral diseases. Second, Boris Johnson promised that eligibility would be extended to everyone over the age of 50, without my knowing whether vaccine manufacturers could increase supply.
“We are not exhausted yet, but I am afraid we will probably do so even before November, when those over 50 have been told they can keep what’s left.”
A spokesman for the Department of Health and Welfare said: “There is no national shortage of the flu vaccine, with enough doses for 30 million people to be vaccinated in England. The vaccine is already being delivered to those in risk groups, including those over 65, and this will continue through the winter months, so there is still time for eligible people to get vaccinated. “
