@notevenat20
It was approved on the 30th and will be rolled out on the 4th. There was a grand total of one working day inbetween the two.
I guess I think that when there is a national crisis some people have to work on the weekend. If the real problem is a shortage of glass vials then that is very frustrating as they would have known since the start of the trials months ago that they would be needed.
Well, yes. The NHS has been working 24/7 throughout.
Run through the dates.
Vaccine approval on the 30th. One day to transport. To do that on the 30th you would have needed lorries on standby, from the 27th, because we did not know when the vaccine would be approved.
So, probably more realistic to transport on the 31st, having called up your urgent drivers on the 30th. How many drivers do you need to transport vaccine around the country? Are they available? Are they tied up at Dover?
Vaccine centres need to be set up, with fridges, and procedures to monitor the cold chain. It's less rigorous than Pfizer, but still needs to be kept in a fridge. That fridge needs the temperature monitoring because, unlike your milk, there's no easy way to tell if the vaccine has been spoiled. You can't transport the vaccine til that's been done, and you can't finalise details til the MHRA release their report on the 30th.
Are you going to have read that report and got everythign set up for the 31st? It's tight. Would it be better to push back transport to the 1st? That's a bank holiday - is that going to impact on the availability of drivers? What about the weather? There's snow forecast. What's the impact of that on the delivery schedule?
Someone needs to call patients. You can't book appointments until you know the vaccines will be there. You can't organise clinics til you know the skill set of clinicians you need (which will vary depending on the vaccine protocol, not available til the 30th). How much space do you need - well, that depends on how long patients will have to wait afterwards, which you won't know til the 30th. And you don't know how many patients you can see an hour without that information.
So, the vaccine is pitching up on the 1st, God-willing. Lets start phoning patients. Are your admin team available? A third of them are off with Covid, and the others are exhausted. Many are young mums, because that's the nature of the NHS workforce. Are they willing to come in on the 1st to make calls, at virtually no notice. they aren't contracted to work weekends but, under the circumstances, many will be willing. Can they sort the childcare?
How much notice do your patients need? Unlikely you'll get many in on the day you call them. What about the 2nd? Probably. Some. Enough, given many of the target agegroup will rely on family for support. Possibly...
And so it goes... It's not as simple as pressing the go button, and the vaccines are there and ready to give. There's an awful lot of logistics and messy people management that has to happen first. Being done by people who are already over-stretched, in the middle of the holiday period.