A mass vaccination centre - capable of delivering 2,000 jabs a day - has been mothballed just weeks after opening.
Instead of opening seven days a week to vaccinate as many people in the NHS Lanarkshire area as quickly as possible, the Ravenscraig Sports Centre in Motherwell has shut its doors.
It will now only open at weekends or if the demand increases.
Soldiers from the Leuchars based Royal Scots Dragoon Guards were drafted in last month to open the facility before handing it over to the NHS at the weekend.
But it has been blighted by so called ‘ghost patients’ with hundreds of people failing to turn up to get the Covid-19 jab.
According to an insider, only 250 people turned up on Monday and the centre was closed the following day.
The insider who has worked at a number of vaccination centres, including Ravenscraig, said the situation was an “absolute shambles” with soldiers sent away as they had nothing to do while NHS staff sat around idle.
Dr Mark Russell, Lead for the Covid-19 Vaccination Programme in Lanarkshire stated: “Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility was always part of NHS Lanarkshire’s plan for the delivery of the Covid-19 vaccine.
“This was originally going to be later in the programme. However, we brought forward using the facility on a temporary basis to assist with the national drive to vaccinate people as quickly as possible.
“It is still part of our plan and will be used when we need the extra capacity – for example, at weekends. Currently, our communities are choosing to attend their local community vaccination centres.”
He insisted: “We have processes in place to make sure vaccine wastage is kept to a minimum. This includes moving vaccine between clinics, where possible. On Sunday no doses were disposed of and on Monday we had to dispose of two doses.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said the Government was “aware that NHS Lanarkshire are exploring how to increase the capacity of vaccinations taking place at Ravenscraig and will provide them with any support required”.
