Jagging for Victory

You would think from the headlines of the past couple of days that the UK had achieved the impossible. 15 million Covid vaccinations in 10 weeks! The PM and  Matt Hancock have been lapping up the kudos, wearing white coats and wide smiles as if they had personally administered the vaccines. Eventually, one of their promises has been realised and it was almost world-beating, only Israel and the United Arab Emirates were further ahead. But is it really such an achievement?

During the 2019/2020 winter before the lockdown, GP practices administered the vast majority of 15.3 million vaccinations to their patients: those over 65, those in clinical at-risk groups, pregnant women, and some children, whilst hospitals vaccinated some healthcare workers. The vaccinations usually take place from early October to early November in advance of winter flu, let's say over 5 weeks. They are carried out by community-based medical staff alongside all the other duties they perform with no fuss or celebration. Patients usually just pop into their local medical centre, or if housebound, they might be visited by a GP or one of the nurses at home. It makes you realise and appreciate the effectiveness of the NHS community-based GP practices.

The Covid vaccinations have benefitted from new vaccination centres, hospital vaccinations, drive-in centres, pharmacies and the army. Retired doctors and nurses were recruited to augment the operation. So when, as the weekend approached, we were told the target of 15 million vaccinations would be reached

By Friday soon, or Saturday noon
With Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock, Kate Bingham,
Chris Whitty, Simon Stevens, Dido Harding, 
Jonathan van tam as well as
Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all,

We were meant to be amazed.

And what have they done, well 15 million vaccinations in 10 weeks? The GPs were twice as fast with no need for patients to travel to distant centres, vaccines administered by medics you know and without any significant reduction to other services. And no need for Uncle Tom Cobley and all. Like so many government initiatives during the time of COVID, new initiatives emanating from central government have been more about them wanting to take control. Local practitioners have been sacrificed and the costs of responding to COVID have grown unnecessarily