THERE is not enough capacity for covid booster jabs, warned the borough council’s health executive.
Cllr Charles Margetts said that he has written to Berkshire West CCG and the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care System (BOB ICS) calling for urgent action.
“It’s immensely frustrating,” the councillor said. “Politicians on the television are telling residents to go and get their booster jab, but they can’t. There’s not enough capacity.”
Cllr Margetts previously told Wokingham Today that there were plans to open a mass vaccination centre in Matthewsgreen in the new year.Today, Cllr Margetts said the CCG has yet to commit to an opening date in January.
“I’ve raised a formal complaint against the CCG to BOB,” he said.
He hopes that a meeting with Dr James Kent, chief executive of BOB ICS, on Friday will resolve some of the jab availability issues.
Cllr Margetts said that he is also concerned the wrong advice is being given out to medical staff.
At the weekend, he went to the Broad Street Mall walk-in centre to get a booster jab.
On arrival, Cllr Margetts said that he was told he couldn’t get a booster shot until six months after his second dose was given.
But on Wednesday, December 8, the national vaccine programme was extended so that all residents aged 40 and over, along with those in high risk groups, would be able to book in for their booster jab three months after their second dose.
When Cllr Margetts raised this, he said he was told that NHS staff at the walk-in had not been told this, and that he could not receive a booster jab. Instead, he was turned away.
Cllr Margetts said that he is very concerned if residents do not have access to the booster jab before the new year, infection rates will not only overwhelm the NHS, but also impact the running of society, from bin collections to businesses.
