VACCINE WASTE
Doctors forced to BIN Covid vaccine doses ‘because people aren’t turning up for appointments’
DOCTORS are being forced to bin vaccine doses as people aren't turning up for appointments, it's claimed.
Seven mass injection centres that opened across England today are set to ramp up administering the Covid-19 jab to thousands of Brits, giving a jab every 45 seconds.
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Boris Johnson revealed today that 2.4million Covid jabs have been given out so far.
But a nurse at one hospital in West London claimed supplies were being thrown away "all over London, and probably right across Britain" as people were not coming to vaccination appointments.
The nurse told : "Loads of people are not keeping the appointments their GPs have made for them.
"The trouble is the vaccine has to be given or it has to be thrown away.
DEPLORABLE
"On Thursday night we had something like 45 people who were booked for jabs but didn't turn up, and didn't let us or their GP know in advance.
"Had we known they weren't coming, someone else could have been slotted in in their place.
"We were left hanging around, and then when they didn't show up, we were faced with the choice of throwing the vaccine away or trying to get it into someone's arm."
The Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine, which had to be stored at -70C, must be injected within five days after being defrosted.
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Supplies must be administered quickly after they're prepared, and only last a few hours once removed from a fridge.
The Oxford jab, which can be distributed more quickly, can be kept at 2C in a regular fridge.
The nurse - who wished to remain anonymous - branded it a "scandal" that vaccine supplies were being chucked away as people missed their slots.
The nurse added: "I rang some friends and said 'How quickly can you drop everything and get here? Other staff were doing the same.
"Some people we rang were able to come in at short notice and they had the vaccine, but a lot of it had to be thrown away because we can't keep it beyond a certain time.
"I think it's deplorable and a scandal that people are offered a slot and then just don't turn up, and never get in touch."
Sun Online has contacted the NHS about the claims.
Last week, it was reported 150,000 Pfizer vaccine doses may be have been wasted because doctors are "wrongly being told to throw away a potential sixth dose".
It comes as Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty warned the NHS is facing its "worst weeks" of the coronavirus pandemic as he begged Brits to stay at home as a mutant Covid strain runs rampant.
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The government has pledged to vaccinate 13.9million of Britain's most vulnerable people - including over-70s, and health and care workers - by February 15.
Vaccines need to be rolled out by at least two million a week for the figure to be reached.
Today's figures announced by the PM at a vaccination hub in Bristol show around one million people have got the jab in the last week alone - and hundreds of thousands every day.
More than 28,000 Brits have joined The Sun's Jab's Army campaign to help with the vaccine rollout, with Piers Morgan praising the volunteer drive.
Mass vaccination sites opened in Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham, Stevenage, Bristol, Surrey and Newham, central London, today.
There are at least 1,000 vaccination sites across the country.
'UNACCEPTABLE' DELAYS
Yesterday, deaths cases jumped by more than 50,000 for the 13th day in a row as deaths rose by 563 - pushing the total number of victims to more than 81,000.
More than 3,072,349 have tested positive for the virus in the UK.
Meanwhile, health bosses warned that GPs' computers were running "unbelievably slowly" and keep crashing, leading to pensions having to queue for hours to get their jab.
Dr Richard Vautrey, who chairs the British Medical Association's GP committee, said software wasn't linking properly to programmes that allow GPs to access patient information.
Staff were having to migrate the information manually, using handwritten notes, it's claimed.
Footage emerged at the weekend showing hundreds of elderly people stuck in a huge covid vaccination queue in near-freezing temperatures.
Some of the patients were reportedly told they would have to wait in the cold for up to three hours for their jab at a GP surgery in South London.
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Dr Vautrey said: “We find we’re trying to upload important information and that we can’t, or the system crashes altogether.
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“It’s unacceptable.
"When trying to get through as many patients as possible you can’t afford to waste a minute, you can’t afford for the entire system to be a hindrance.”
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