NHS cannot be used as vaccination service every few months, jab chief warns

Exclusive: ‘Realistically’ NHS does not have capacity for any new promises this month, jab chief warns government

Hundreds queue at a vaccination centre on Solihull High Street, West Midlands (PA Wire)

The national chief for the Covid vaccination programme has warned that the NHS cannot become a vaccination service every few months.

Emily Lawson also told healthcare staff in a briefing on Wednesday: “I have fed back to the Department of Health yesterday that I think realistically we don’t have the capacity to do anything else new over the next two-and-a-half weeks.

“And that when we plan for things and have the right lead-up to them, we deliver them more effectively, which in the end is very critical for public confidence.”

Her warning comes after the government announced plans on Sunday to rapidly accelerate the national Covid vaccination programme by offering all adults a booster jab by the new year.

On Monday, NHS England sent letters to hospital chiefs, GPs and local healthcare leaders setting out plans to speed up the programme, and said the first priority for primary care would be delivering vaccines.

Healthcare leaders were told they could drop non-urgent care in efforts to support the vaccine drive, however specific details on what treatments can be dropped are yet to be finalised.

Ms Lawson told staff during the briefing on Wednesday, which was shared with The Independent, that the NHS was planning for a number of scenarios for jab programmes over the next few years, including that “top-up vaccinations” may be needed as new variants emerge.

Stressing that scientists had not yet confirmed that such top-ups will be required, she said: “What’s really clear is we cannot continue to just reorient the NHS to vaccination every three to six months.”

During the call, NHS England staff were encouraged to support the Covid vaccination drive wherever possible.

Ms Lawson asked workers to consider helping out in the southwest where there is “almost nobody available”.

In the same briefing, NHS Chief executive Amanda Pritchard said it was “the right thing to do to prioritise vaccination and prioritise discharging” patients.

But she admitted that it was “hard to make some of those judgements on what routine aspects of care might need to be rescheduled … to make space to create the staffing capacity to support those things”.

She said it “needs clinical leadership, but from the national team, it also needs us to be straightforward that we recognise that that is going to be one of the consequences of needing to step up in this way.”

On Tuesday the NHS delivered a record number of vaccinations, 611,976 – an advance on Saturday’s record of 483,361.