The Curious Case of Jagging Variations

The slow start and variable speed of vaccinations in Scotland have been the subject of many questions during the First Minister's daily update on the Cover pandemic. She has normally blamed the slower rate than the rest of the UK by stressing that Scotland had focused on the Care Homes first. Whilst this has undoubtedly been better than England, it has not picked up the Care Homes for the Disabled including those for young people and it is certainly not at the 99.5% claimed by the First Minister, even medical experts acknowledge that it is difficult to get higher than 90%. The Scottish Government and media have also given great plaudits to the mass vaccination centres such as the Louisa Jordan centre at the SECC in Glasgow and others that have come on stream in Edinburgh and Aberdeen. 

The above table tells a different tale. It is the smaller Health Board areas that have performed considerably better. The health boards covering the three Island groups together with Dumfries and Galloway, Ayrshire, Borders and Highland all mainly serve sparsely populated rural communities. They depend on GPs and medical centres to deliver vaccinations with few additional facilities brought into play. They have managed to average 37% vaccination levels. 

The remaining 8 health boards covering the cities and major urban centres have commissioned larger buildings such as football stadia as well as hosting the mass vaccination centres. They have averaged a vaccination rate of 26.3%. This is almost 30% less than achieved by the rural health boards. So why is all the kudos going to the mass vaccination centres, is it because these are the visible evidence of Scottish Government intervention? After all, Louisa Jordan cost £70m and has a £2.4m contract for security with G4S. The GPs and local medical centres are not in the game of seeking glory, they are using existing facilities and it would appear that they are a lot better organised and efficient in delivering services and at the community level where patients have to travel less and are vaccinated by familiar faces. Now that achieves efficacy, efficiency and effectiveness and is sustainable, as we see every year when the flu vaccinations are rolled out.