GP giving vaccine to his mate

[LoafEater]

So an acquaintance of mine has told a mutual friend that his friend, who is a GP in out local area, called him up at the end of a vaccine session and invited him down to the surgery to get a 'leftover' vaccine. He went and had it, and is telling people how delighted he is about it.

This acquaintance does not really work (independently wealthy/lazy), is in his mid-50s and has no health issues. I am livid. My brother lives in a care home has not had the vaccine yet, and I know lots of other people, myself included, who are working front line jobs or have health conditions that won't be getting it for a long time yet. I see from the press today that this seems to be happening all over. I suspect, knowing this man, that this was pre-planned rather than a last minute thing.

Don't know why I'm posting this really as there is nothing that can be done about it now, but I found out about this last week and I am still so cross!

Oops sorry Op @LoafEater
I ment my previous thread for @nervalslober.

I know someone who works in a centre and he told me yesterday that when there are spare vaccines they use them for anyone who isn’t already done. Let’s not slow down the fantastic vaccination effort by moaning about fairness. Non of this is bloody fair.

I can’t see the issue at all. It’s surely better that someone, anyone, uses the vaccine than it being binned.

Then you have a fall-back list of people who can get there quickly – which will tend to be people who are independent and mobile or on the spot at work already. Almost the antithesis of the first group.

Not necessarily. Plenty of retired people are mobile and free to go to their local surgery at short notice.

Good. Better than wasting it. Every person injected is a step closer to herd immunity and normal life.

A local church is going to be a vaccine hub and are asking for volunteers to help steward the sessions. I am volunteering, mostly because I volunteer for a lot of community events there. However it is definitely at the back of my mind that if I'm there at the end of the day they might offer me some unused vaccine.

@Scrunchies

I echo what PP said. It’s a strange system the government are making us use. I’m a GP but currently on mat leave. I can’t get my vaccine apparently as there isn’t enough to allocate me one (returning soon) however they are binning the spares daily. None of the other staff have had their 2nd dose. They are literally throwing it away rather than inoculate themselves.

The government has threatened to remove their license if they give staff 2nd doses. It’s madness, as then there would be even less people to vaccinate!

This, it’s not the fault of the GPS.

@ginghamstarfish

It's surely happening everywhere. They should really have a list of those next in line to offer leftover vaccine to, surely some would be able to get there quickly if phoned.

My Surgery does. It's working well

How would throwing away unused vaccine that''s no good the next day, help your brother in a care home?

'Acquaintance of a friend of a friend'

Reads like a game of Chinese whispers. This might not even be real.
Also, who cares? 🤷🏾‍♂️

Due to quite a few "no shows" family was asked do you know anyone who can have the injection not yet called up(they are in their 70's) as we now have to throw away unused vials. if they could get to the clinic in the next 15 mins it was getting on for 5.30pm, they managed to get it. Glad for them.

It seems to be happening elsewhere too

They can't transport unused vaccines to care homes at the end of the day - especially if it's the unstable Pfizer one and I'd rather that they weren't wasted.

If you've read the posts on here by people working at GPs and vaccination centres then you'd know that there's quite a lot of no shows (understandable when there is snow to contend with as well) and that you can end up making 100 calls and still not find 50 people who can pop round. If there were spares you'd think they'd call the local police station or something and ask them to send over 50 officers instead.

1. It is better than bin it.
2. There might have called and person on the list could not make it in time.
3. Drop in first serve basis is not a great idea if we are in lockdown and try to limit people going unnecessarily to GP.
4. One more person getting the vaccine is one more person not getting severely ill, so other people can get treatment.

Why don't we sack this jobs 4 the boys, get rich, couldn't organise a piss up, complacent, smug, incompetent government

Every single person who's vaccinated makes it safer for the rest of us. one less person who can give it to us.

Most vaccination centres are open until 9pm. So surgery staff aren't going to be around when the leftovers are found.

Exactly the same happened to one of my friends. She got a call at 8:45 pm from a GP she only knew slightly, socially. He happened to have her number in his phone, knew she lived two minutes away from the centre, and knew her DH was high risk. So he saved that vaccine going on the bin, and it made it to someone who needed it. After her DH was vaccinated, they still had three vaccines left, so vaccinated her too.

I'm sure systems will get better, and there will be a list of people who can be called and relied on to get there in time. But at the moment we're still in the early stages and staff are having to be reactive in stopping vaccines going to waste.

Use it or lose it. If people do not turn up give it to someone else. One couple I heard of have turned it down twice because they will not drive in the dark/bad weather. Sorry but someone else gets it.

Surely it's not about wasting vaccines it's more about GPs etc not being well organised. They could have a list of vulnerable people who they could call on last minute. It wouldn't take much. I know I'd be at the surgery like a shot.

@Oblahdeeoblahdoe

Surely it's not about wasting vaccines it's more about GPs etc not being well organised. They could have a list of vulnerable people who they could call on last minute. It wouldn't take much. I know I'd be at the surgery like a shot.

You may be there like a shot... but it might take 10 phone calls and multiple people taking a few minutes to decide whether they're coming before they got to your name. I once spent over an hour ringing round a standby list to get only 2 takers. Its more time consuming than you realise.

I'd rather that GPs and their staff concentrated on dealing with direct patient care, given current backlogs.

Exactly. It would be a really time consuming task to make a list of people who are a) vulnerable b) live close to the centre c) have transport d) are physically fit and mobile and can react quickly given a tem minute deadline and e) aren't ditherers.
All to save half a dozen people from getting a vaccine that they're not entitled to yet, because the staff know them.

Let's be pragmatic. Anything is better than vaccines going on the bin needlessly. The people who get them will be taken off the waiting list, so other people will get their vaccines quicker than they would have, and there'll be fewer people getting infected, passing it on, or ending up in hospital.

Resentment is making people irrational here.

Of course it is best not to waste it and just use it up like that.

@GrumpyHoonMain

This is happening everywhere. GPs don’t want to risk binning the vaccine and so are inviting friends and family they know who’ll have it. Even people entitled to the vaccine are rejecting it or not showing up - which I think is more reprehensible as they’ll be the ones needing hospital support if they catch covid.

GPs are NOT inviting friends and family to have a vaccine, if they did they would be struck off!

All GP surgeries have a list of those in tiers 1-4, and can call those on the day to give a vaccine to avoid wasted dose (esp re the ‘sixth dose’). These can ONLY be people in eligible tier linked to the surgery: patient or work there. That includes support staff and locums ... health workers are among priority vaccine tiers as more exposure

Hope that helps clarify

@Oblahdeeoblahdoe

Surely it's not about wasting vaccines it's more about GPs etc not being well organised. They could have a list of vulnerable people who they could call on last minute. It wouldn't take much. I know I'd be at the surgery like a shot.

Vaccination isn't down to GPs. It's not being done at surgeries. It's an NHS response being carried out at hubs.

To be honest, our GPs would be able to do a far better job if their phone lines weren't being taken up by hundreds of people calling them for vaccine information that they don't have. It's almost impossible to get through to our surgery, despite that fact that they've put out notices everywhere on SM etc, begging people not to call about vaccines, and giving them the information on who they SHOULD contact.

My friend only got the vaccine via her GP because he happened to have called into the hub that evening.

As others have said. There are 9 doses in each unit. If they get to the end of the day and doses are left they have a choice, try and call people in, who may not be on the current list but are available, or bin it

Personally I would prefer it’s used by whoever can use it

Hm, maybe an automated text system would work better than phoning from a list one by one? 20 vaccines left, 50 people texted, told clearly to arrive by X time and it's come first served, if you don't want it text back "stop" and the system automatically removes you. Massively reduced admin and most surgeries have a text system in place already.

'Exactly. It would be a really time consuming task to make a list of people who are a) vulnerable b) live close to the centre c) have transport d) are physically fit and mobile and can react quickly given a tem minute deadline and e) aren't ditherers.'

With respect, bollocks. In this technical age there is no need of 'list making' one simply uses computer programmes to identify the priority patient groups.

After months of build up they will surely have the groups identified in their data, so rather than running round various clinic rooms and asking practice staff they want to do a ring round of their family and friends you click on the next priority list and ring them. To not do so is unethical and I hope this is being audited.

My friend got a vaccine as a result of there being a spares at the end of the day. I was pleased for her.

It would have gone to waste otherwise as it’s too late in the day for other patients to be called in.

A vaccine used is better than a vaccine wasted.