Residents are being urged not to be deterred from getting vaccinated amid reports over long waiting times – as health chiefs say they are working to ensure there are enough supplies.
Earlier this month, we reported how residents were turned away from appointments at Alexandria’s vaccination centre, as others faced queues of more than 90 minutes for their jab.
It comes as ministers across the UK have made clear that getting as many people boosted as possible is critical to the fight against the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
Councillor Gail Casey told a West Dunbartonshire Council meeting last week that the issue has happened throughout the local authority area and asked what was being done to tackle it.
She said: “I was speaking to a young mother the other day who told me that her teenage son had stood outside the college in Clydebank to get his vaccination.
“He’d waited a good couple of hours and then somebody came out and told him they had run out of vaccinations and that he would have to come back another day.
“I’m hearing this is going on throughout the authority.
“Do we have any control over this?”
The area’s health and social care partnership (HSCP) chief officer, Beth Culshaw admitted there had been pressures at vaccination centres but said it was being addressed.
She explained: “We are continuing to monitor very closely the demand across all the clinics and waiting times and undoubtedly, as you will know, for some weeks this has caused some real pressure.
“In some ways we’re a victim of our own success as more and more people seek to come along and have their vaccination so all we can do is continue to monitor it and ensure we have as much supply as we possibly can.
“Over the last 10 days we have increased slots and the council has worked with us closely to ensure that the locations are available and supported.
“We would hope in terms of the current waiting times it would not deter people from trying to attend.
“What’s also happened is they’ve opened up Hampden for a large scale vaccination centre and I know that isn’t necessarily the easiest place to access but at this time the larger locations we have the better it is in terms of economies of scale and trying to staff them.
“Just as we’re seeing pressures in other areas, we’re seeing pressure in our staff as vaccinators as the spread of the current virus is causing us some real pressures.”
She added: “We’ll continue to make sure as many people as possible have access to the booster as that’s the best way to maintain our defence against the latest variation as we’re told.”
