Thousands of Covid jabs appointments have been missed in just one week in March – following reports of a letter delivery glitch.
A new report has revealed around 60,000 of 400,000 vaccination appointments were missed between March 14 and March 20; the equivalent of one in seven.
Reports that some Scots have been no-shows for their scheduled jabs – resulting in wasted vaccines – is believed to be a result of a glitch in the letter delivery system.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “As previously said, for the week Monday, March 15 to Sunday, March 21, almost 400,000 vaccine appointments were offered, although there were around 60,000 appointments that were not attended.
“While we are aware of some issues with the delivery of appointment letters in the early part of the week, this issue was later resolved.
“We are closely monitoring actual day to day uptake vs projections and actively working with boards to understand the reasons for the increased level of appointments that weren’t attended and whether this is a localised issue or more wide spread to enable us to reach these groups of people and encourage greater uptake.”
As of Friday, March 26, a total of 177,282 people in the Ayrshire and Arran health board area had received a first dose of their vaccination.
Jamie Greene, Conservative MSP candidate for Cunninghame North, has stressed the importance of keeping one's Covid jab vaccine appointment to those who have been invited to do so.
He said: "We have made tremendous progress in North Ayrshire on our vaccine rollout and my thanks go to all of those involved in this effort.
“However, many people are still failing to turn up to their set appointment, or not rescheduling them, which is resulting in wasted vaccines.
“If you aren’t going to attend, or are unable to make it, please let the vaccination hub know in advance – we have a duty to not waste precious jabs which could benefit someone else who needs one."
Meanwhile, NHS Ayrshire & Arran praised the Covid vaccination programme.
A spokeswoman said: "The local COVID-19 vaccination programme is progressing well and has been hugely successful so far.
"We are continuing to vaccinate residents of Ayrshire according to the JCVI prioritisation as set out nationally.
"Letters are continuing to drop to Ayrshire addresses offering appointments to come for vaccination. Vaccinations are not mandatory, however, we strongly recommend people come forward when they are invited.
"We are aware that some people will not be able to attend their appointment, we would like to remind patients to make contact to cancel or reschedule appointments."
Information on how to do this can be found on the NHS website: https://www.nhsaaa.net/coronavirus-covid-19/covid-19-vaccination-appointments/
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