who should run the vaccination service

Thank you Charleygirl, Our practice is pretty useless.
This isn't criticising the NHS. My DH has had wonderful treatment for his cancer.

There is an out of hours GP service available I presume though? Our GPs were back on Monday, they had New Years Day public holiday off, as did the outpatient clinics (not that there are many operating here at the moment as the staff have been redeployed to help the wards who are overwhelmed).

The local OOH service has been stopped so people have to travel 50 miles or more now to access treatment. I was shocked to hear that.

The point is, though, that four days when planning could have been taking place has been lost and now there’s a backlog of the bread-and-butter illnesses to be seen to as well.

Some people have to travel more than 50 miles, that should say. Where we live, we would now have a 40 mile round trip to access OOH care.

petra

There's a pretty scathing article in the Mail this morning by David Blunkett. He's of the opinion that it should be the army.
He doesn't have a very high opinion of the pen pushers in the NHS. Neither do I.

Read something similar in the times about NHS not responding to offers of help from Boots and the like

My husband received a message informing him where vaccines will take place. A few miles from where we live which is ridiculous as we have a local health centre on our doorstep which is always empty. I had my flu jab at the local large village hall which was only occupied by me and a nurse.

SueDonim I agree, that is not a good Out Of Hours GP service, to be fair it’s good where I am. I do think that NHS teams need breaks as badly if not more at the moment than other services though, and GP practices are going to be very hard pressed over the next few months so are unlikely to be able to take many breaks from now on. Our local hospital teams were called back to work from their holidays over Christmas and the New Year because it was overwhelmed with Covid admissions, so it’s depends a lot on where you live I think.

It’s not ridiculous Redhead56, it’s making best use of the vaccinator capacity for patients to go to mass immunisation centres. They can vaccinate hundreds of people every day that way, we need to appreciate we can’t have this done in every GP surgery and community centre in every village in the UK if it is to be done quickly, which is the most important thing. For most people it’s a mild inconvenience, and those who are genuinely unable to get their vaccine that way will get it locally - but they will probably have to wait a bit longer because of the lack of capacity in the system.

My GP practice for about 12,000 patients has:

9 GPs
6 nurses
2 paramedics
5 HCAs

Total 22 (not all full-time)

All of the above already give injections, so presumably don't need any further paperwork.

There are three other GP practices in the consortium, so that's potentially 88 vaccinators.

They're all working out of hours (on Saturdays) to do vaccinations, for which they're being paid, so not affecting other services.

I don't get it. If all areas operated in a similar way, there wouldn't be a shortage of vaccinators.

It's difficult with the Pfizer vaccine because of the storage issues, but presumably anybody who can't get to a centre could be vaccinated locally with the AZ vaccine, which is what's happening with care homes.

Redhead56

My husband received a message informing him where vaccines will take place. A few miles from where we live which is ridiculous as we have a local health centre on our doorstep which is always empty. I had my flu jab at the local large village hall which was only occupied by me and a nurse.

It's presumably because it's empty that it's not being used. They have to work out where would be most convenient for the greatest number of people.

I have just received a WhatsApp on this very subject.

L The Labour Mps they are really getting me down
If they aren't asking for clarity they are just moaning
Why did any decision not get made before it was made or we need clarity.They need something to occupy them we are in a worldwide pandemic they should be trying to help

Or do they really need things explaining simply
I don't have a degree but it's all been clear enough for me

Esspee I saw a similar one that said ‘ if you put the vaccine in beer and opened the pubs the majority of the country would be done by Sunday’ !

I share the frustrations of the retired medics and nurses being asked to provide proof of their qualifications in diversity, safeguarding, fire safety, lifting and handling etc. You need none of these to give a vaccine to a long queue of people. I also wonder about cramming huge numbers of people (eventually) into vast single site arenas, instead of using the local flu jab protocols, which could just have increased numbers. Pharmacies have been saying for months they could help as they do with the flu jabs, but they have been ignored, as have thousands of retirees offering to come back.

Oh, forgot, 7 mass vaccination hubs to open next week, on Sky news, unfortunately not one in Hampshire where we are.

Love that Jaxjacky ?

It's not just health and safety stuff people have to learn about.
It's radicalisation, FGM...

That's why a lot of people have given up halfway through their online training.

In my area, the pay for a vaccinator is £25 an hour. I did not even want payment- this is a pandemic for God's sake. The 21 pages of garbage to be filled n has been reduced to 4 but as far as I am concerned they can stuff it. I was not in a lifting and handling role so it would be 30 years + since and amazingly I got rid of everything to do with my profession.

Nadhim Zahawi was interviewed this morning, and was adamant that vaccinations are on target.

Let's hope so.

Casdon, my youngest is a NQ doctor, graduated in a rush last April. She was working four consecutive 12.5hr+ night shifts in emergency surgery in sole charge of 200+ patients. The burden within the NHS seems to be spread very unevenly.

She’s now working with elderly patients but has had no CV tests since April, apart from one which was negative when she lost her sense of taste. No date for her to get a vaccine either, just that it’ll come eventually. Who knows, she could be putting older people’s lives at risk, which would be awful.

I have read that a care home in scotland has just had a covid breakout, just days after they were given the vaccination.

MissAdventure do you have the the reference for that please?

www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/scottish-news/6499240/coronavirus-scotland-care-home-outbreak-paisley-hunterhill-vaccine/