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TENSIONS RISE AS JAB SUPPLY FALLS: Residents left waiting as precious coronavirus vaccine stocks held back
INFORMATION about the number of people vaccinated so far, and expected supply of the vaccine is being held back from Wokingham Borough Council.
Health executive, Cllr Charles Margetts told Wokingham.Today dose supply is dropping, and he is concerned over the lack of information coming from Berkshire West CCG — the clinical commissioning group that oversees the borough.
“There’s a lot of tension at the moment,” he said. “Residents are asking us when they can expect to receive the vaccine, and we can’t tell them — we aren’t being given that information. The CCG won’t tell us.”
He said senior officials in the commissioning group told him “they are not allowed to publish figures on the uptake” and that NHS guidelines say they cannot provide information on “vaccine breakdown and supply”.
Cllr Margetts said in the week commencing January 11, the borough received 5,400 doses of the vaccines. One week later, supply was 4,800.
This week, the borough has been given fewer still, with 4,200 doses provided — a 22% decrease in a fortnight.
This is penalising the borough, Cllr Margetts claimed.
“We have been told by John Redwood’s office and James Sunderland’s office that there is no issue with vaccine production,” Cllr Margetts said. “Instead, the NHS is prioritising supply to areas that are behind.
“We believe they should be prioritising supply where there is capacity on the ground to deliver it,” he said. “The only conclusion I can draw is there is a logistics issue which no one is telling us about.”
The health executive said the borough has increased capacity to give jabs to the community, with enough resources in place to give 7,500 vaccines per week.
But this is dependent on supply.
He said GP surgeries across the borough were hesitant to sign-off on plans for a mass vaccination centre at Loddon Valley Leisure Centre, because they couldn’t financially commit until vaccination supply was confirmed.
“GPs are working hard to implement that vaccination programme, but they are being held back because supply cannot meet capacity,” Cllr Margetts said. “At the moment, there is only a four to five day notification of supply delivery, which makes it incredibly hard to plan resources and staff effectively.
“The only thing holding the borough back is reducing vaccine supply and a lack of any information from the NHS over what they are doing — or what they plan to do over the next few weeks.”
He added: “We are pleading with the CCG to give us our GPs more information, so they can deliver the vaccination programme successfully.”
Cllr Clive Jones, deputy leader of the Lib Dems questioned whether 7,500 doses per week was ever confirmed for the borough.
“Did we just go ahead and create this capacity,” he said. “Why did we think we’d have 7,500 doses in the first place?”
He said he couldn’t understand the reason for hiding vaccination statistics, and called for greater clarity publicly.
This was echoed by the Lib Dem leader, Cllr Lindsay Ferris, who added that any leftover doses each day should be used by a “reserve list”.
Cllr Margetts said the lack of information was also stopping the borough council from starting a targeted marketing campaign for groups that are not coming forward for vaccination.
“We are not able to send out the required public health messages and protect our residents due to this lack of information,” he said.
He is calling for vaccination figures for the borough to answer public questions, take up figures to address fears in any groups hesitant to be vaccinated, and a forward prediction of supply, to take the pressure of the GPs and give opportunity for planning.
A spokesperson for Berkshire West CCG declined to comment on the call to publish figures of vaccinations given, and instead said the programme is “progressing well” and all over 80s and care home residents will be vaccinated by the end of the week.
They said: “Vaccine allocation is being driven by NHS England and is dependent on the number of patients still to be vaccinated in the current cohort. This will ensure equity.”
When questioned about the predicted supply of the vaccine, and communicating this to the borough council, the spokesperson said: “The roll out of the vaccine in Wokingham, as across the country, is dependent on supplies and deliveries.
“Once we have notification about a delivery then we are acting very fast in booking in patients.”
The CCG declined to comment on whether the Government banned them from revealing supply information, or whether the Government was withholding this information from them as well.
The spokesperson added: “This is a major mass vaccination programme and we’re asking people to be patient and not to ring their GP surgery – they will be in touch as soon as they have supplies and spaces available.”
But Cllr Margetts said this is not good enough, and residents deserve more clarity about expected timelines.
“Even telling someone they can expect a call in the next two weeks, and to call a number if they haven’t, would be better than what is happening now,” he said.
Cllr Andy Croy, leader of Wokingham Labour, said he thought the numbers were being kept a “secret” because each time data has been published,it has shown “catastrophic failings in the management of the pandemic”.
He added: “Being told to prepare for 7,500 jabs a day as ‘burst’ capacity is also a waste of time and resources. It is the same old story. The public and the public sector have been let down by the government over and over again.”
The Department for Health and Social Care was contacted for comment.
