A GP from Altrincham said he can’t order more vaccines and 'it’s making logistics a nightmare'.
Dr Maz Sangha a GP partner at St John’s Medical Practice, based at the Altrincham Health and Wellbeing hub, has become frustrated with the practicalities of the coronavirus vaccine roll out.
He said: “We are still unable to order which is making logistics a nightmare. We just get told at the end of the week what we are getting. Personally, I feel there is an issue with the number [of vaccines] available.
“We are doing over 1,500 this week but could have done 2,000. This is making it very hard to plan clinics.”
In a tweet on December 30, Dr Sangha said: “Let’s just hope it is easier now to order further stocks… we are ready to go but have no dates for further supplies so cannot book any patients.”
The situation has meant that Dr Sangha is unable to invite new patients in for their vaccines, despite having plenty of capacity at his surgery to administer them.
Last week, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham announced a new staffing campaign to try and recruit vaccinators across the city-region.
He was insistent that there was not an issue with the supply of the vaccines, but a potential staff shortage to help with the distribution was a potential concern.
Mr Burnham said: “It’s really encouraging. We’re beginning to see progress being made and arrangements are well in hand in Greater Manchester to significantly increase the vaccination programme in the coming days.
“One issue identified is not so much availability of the vaccine or facilities, but the staffing of the sites when it comes to that wider implementation of the vaccination programme.”
But that isn’t Dr Sangha’s experience and the situation has caused frustration for the experienced GP.
It means that spare capacity to vaccinate possibly another 500 Trafford residents each week is potentially being missed at his surgery alone.
He said: “At present, the issue is supply but once we start doing hopefully 2,000 per week then that is where we will need the bank of clinicians that we are starting to put together. There’s initial good interest, but the issue becomes when you have to keep doing it for at least 17 weeks. All of this on top of high demand for normal workload at levels not seen before in primary care as far as I can remember.”
Last week, Ashton Under Lyne Labour MP Angela Rayner estimated that nationally we’d have to be vaccinating a total of two million people a week in order to be able to begin lifting restrictions in the Spring.
A total of 35,000 vaccines have already been distributed across the Greater Manchester area, with more planned as all of the city-region’s hospital sites were due to have vaccine sites operational from today (Monday January 4).
