The Doctors’ Association UK are hearing every day that staff on the frontline feel that they are being desperately pitched against each other in order to receive the vaccine.
We hear stories of vans driving past hospitals and GP surgeries in London with the highest numbers of cases of Covid-19, only to stop at other hospitals and surgeries in areas with nowhere near such risk for healthcare workers. Delivery of the vaccine appears patchy at best.
Heading into the toughest winter the NHS has ever seen, the announcement of a new, more transmissible strain of Covid-19 could have disastrous impacts on frontline staff and patients if the government does not act now. It is essential that the mistakes of the first wave are not repeated.
Dr Jenny Vaughan, Vice-Chair, DAUK
Doctors and nurses on the front line of the fight against coronavirus at the Royal London Hospital – which has the largest number of Covid patients in the capital – have been denied the Pfizer vaccine.
Hospital bosses at Barts Health Trust have written to staff today expressing their frustration over the decisions by NHS England, which meant the northeast of London – where the rate of infections and hospitalisations are worst – has not been given access to any vaccines.
The Doctor’s Association UK has written to Matt Hancock expressing its concern over the way the NHS is being distributed.
In the letter vice chair, Dr Jenny Vaughan said they were “hearing every day that staff on the frontline feel that they are being desperately pitched against each other in order to receive the vaccine”.
Ms Vaughan continued: “We hear stories of vans driving past hospitals and GP surgeries in London with the highest numbers of cases of Covid-19, only to stop at other hospitals and surgeries in areas with nowhere near such risk for healthcare workers. Delivery of the vaccine appears patchy at best.”
She said frontline A&E staff and intensive care nurses and doctors should be a priority because of sickness and self-isolation significantly affecting nurse to patient ratios and available beds.
The letter added: “Heading into the toughest winter the NHS has ever seen, the announcement of a new, more transmissible strain of Covid-19 could have disastrous impacts on frontline staff and patients if the government does not act now. It is essential that the mistakes of the first wave are not repeated.”
The rest of the article can be read here.
