Families have been reassured they won’t need to hold on to their coronavirus vaccine card to ensure they can get their second dose.
Anyone receiving their first jab is supposed to be given details of treatment they’ve been given, prompting concerns follow-up appointments could be delayed if they’re lost.
But health chiefs for Sunderland have promised they won’t be needed and that bosses will already know which vaccine to administer.
“To be honest with you, the fact that the second dose is three months after, we are not expecting anybody to have those cards,” said Dr Fadi Khalil, a GP and vice chairman of Sunderland Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).
“They’ll be in the wash somewhere or they’ll have been eaten by the dog.
“All the vaccinations are put on a system that goes directly to their GP records and that’s what we use – we will not rely on the cards.
“The cards are an aide-mémoire, it tells you what you’ve had, but the official record of your vaccination is in your GP record, just like any vaccination, so don’t worry if you don’t have the card, we’re not relying on them.”
Dr Khalil was speaking at last night’s (Wednesday, March 10) meeting of Sunderland City Council’s Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee, which was held by videolink and broadcast via YouTube.
According the CCG, almost 96,000 people in Sunderland had received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine at the start of the week (Monday, March 8), with the city expected to pass the 100,000 mark by the weekend.
