Spare vaccines going in the bin

[FlamingGreatGalaahs]

My friend works in a GP surgery & says that because so many older people are refusing their vaccines (1 in 4 apparently) that lots are going to waste.

Why the hell are they not giving them to teachers so we can get schools back open?!

Am I missing something here?!

Why would vaccinating teachers get the schools back open?

That really is shocking.

GP surgeries should have easy access to their patients who are in the next JCVI group for last minute appointments.

Should I ask my local GP if they have any going to waste? I am v close to them and can literally go any time. I am under 50 and no conditions, so will be waiting a long time.

I thought it was more people not turning up for appointments or just having left overs at the end of the day which could cause them to be wasted which is why some places have been offering them to people who have accompanied them to the appointment or who are there for other reasons them?

@Lalalablahblahblah

If this is true it actually makes me want to cry. I mean it would be better to just grab any passer by than chuck them in the bin surely?

There’s no need for that. The gp surgery has contact details for hundreds of people who are in the current target group for vaccination.

I have it on good authority that it's happening in at least one hospital in the SW and that even more shockingly staff are being threatened with reprimand if they report it or kick up a fuss

And I didn't think it was vaccinating the teachers that would get schools open?

@GoldenPenPot

Why would vaccinating teachers get the schools back open?

Because the only reason schools are shut is to protect the work shy teachers who are refusing to work out of fear of catching the virus. We all know that schools are a bubble where the virus doesn't spread but if it does it only spreads to teachers and children and certainly not the community.

1 in 4 seems very high. All the high level numbers are pretty much on target. I think there would be an issue with keeping up the pace if so many people were refusing. I know a few people who have been contacted to get a last minute vaccine. One guy at work had driven his wife to the hospital for late afternoon vaccine and she called him to say did he want one as they had a few left over.

Many places will make a call for local NHS workers or police etc if they have some left at the end of the day.
And I think some are starting to do the second vaccine for some people too.
It seems that this was the original policy but most places are not following that and using all of the vaccines they have

There was something on BBC London News last week about a high number of no-shows because people were double booking their appointments - i.e. being offered an appt at a vaccination centre and then getting another offer nearer to home and never cancelling the original one.

Even so they wouldn't be wasting 1 in 4 vaccines though because they won't be preparing so many extra ones in advance. There may be a few left overs at the end of the day but mostly they are getting other people in to have them.

It’s shocking.

I have contacted my gp asking for the vaccine, I am a self employed support worker currently working with a client where I can’t wear PPE, because I’m self employed I haven’t been put forward for the vaccine, my emails have been ignored and no one has contacted me. I am a couple miles from the nearest vaccination centre so could be there in 5 minutes if there was a left over vaccine.

I think people within a 5 mile radius of the vaccination centres should be allowed to be on some kind of list for call up when there are vaccines left over.

GPs do ring people on their list however it is difficult to get elderly people to come immediately and some family members have complained to the surgery saying it confused and upset their relative when they couldn't attend. Some GPs offered them to younger people but were heavily criticised for that too. GP surgeries are exceptionally busy and they don't have free staff around to dedicate time to making countless phone calls.

That said, that refusal rate is very concerning. 90% of over 80's have taken the vaccine in my area but there has been a much lower uptake in the 65-69 group which is becoming quite concerning. It isn't yet known if these people are just waiting because they feel it shouldn't be their turn yet or if they are preferring to wait to go to their GP rather than the vaccination centres or if they actually are fully declining to ever have the vaccine. It means the vaccination centres aren't filling all slots in the way they had hoped too.

Not the case at the GP surgery I volunteer at. Hardly anyone refuses an appointment and hardly anyone fails to turn up.

Oh ffs.

Not this again.

If you think you can do better with vaccine distribution than people who’ve spent a lifetime in virology, epidemiology and logistics then crack on and write your plan and send it to Boris.

No, vaccines aren’t being wasted. Yes, there are plans to use up any left over, even if that plan is vaccinating cleaners and security guard.
Yes, there are reasons why teachers and the vulnerable aren’t on the lists- logistically it’s impossible to get them to the vaccines in time.

That sounds terrible. Do they not have reserve lists? Our health board are regularly asking for people for their reserve lists to make sure there are people to have them, rather than waste them.

They were giving them away. Then the Daily Mail runs an article claiming that friends and family of staff were being favoured and vaccinated out of turn and NHS England were allegedly going to out a stop to it...which I assume they have and therefore clearly it is better vaccines are binned than give them to someone.

I just fucking despair....the vaccine programme is such a success but a daily paper starts jumping up,and down for a story.

What I do know is that locally there is an arrangement that if there are spare they contact the police and officers come down and get vaccinated which is exactly as it should be

Difficult to believe, is there no whistleblower policy in the NHS? 65-69 haven’t been invited yet in my SW area and there are crowd control issues with the queues at vaccination centres.

Because the only reason schools are shut is to protect the work shy teachers who are refusing to work out of fear of catching the virus. We all know that schools are a bubble where the virus doesn't spread but if it does it only spreads to teachers and children and certainly not the community.

This is a joke, right?

There's another v long thread with a similar title where lots of posters involved with the jabs said it doesn't happen where they work. I'm sure there will always be localised problems, getting them publicised will hopefully mean that someone takes action.

No excuse for just not showing up though, maybe that surgery should actually ask their patients if they want a jab when they make the appointment, that would seem an easy way round the problem.

SIL works in a GP surgery and as far as I understand they have a list of people on standby who can be there at very short notice if there are any spare/extra doses. I've also read a several articles about other practices that go to great lengths to avoid any wastage. I'd be surprised if this was more than a temporary or localised problem.

Some areas are being far more resourceful. One practice up here in Scotland invited officers from the neighbouring police station to come in and use up leftovers at the end of the session - they were very grateful.

It’s just not the case that one in 4 older people are refusing the vaccine. The actual figures of how many of the older ages groups have taken the vaccine are:

91% of over 80s
95% of those aged 75-79
almost three-quarters of those aged 70-74

GPs are now allowed to give leftover vaccine to people in the next cohort down, or over 65s. They have been told time and again not to waste vaccine and ideally to keep a reserve list in the case of no-shows.

And the target to offer the vaccine to all over 70s is 15 Feb, so the percentage of over 70s who’ve had it will increase in the next 5 days.