Concerns over vaccine shortage in 'high performing' centre

An MP has raised concerns about Covid-19 vaccine supply in her constituency, two weeks after a local centre was praised for being high performing.

Daisy Cooper, MP for St Albans, said the Batchwood centre could vaccinate about 14,000 people a week but had only received around 1,000 vaccines over the last few weeks.

It meant some people being called to have one could not book an appointment.

The government said vaccines were "being distributed fairly".

The GP practice-led vaccination centre at a former nightclub has delivered about 20,000 doses since the end of December and is currently immunising people in cohort six, those over 65 plus people between 16 and 65 with an underlying health condition.

Two weeks ago, health and social care secretary, Matt Hancock congratulated Club Batchwood for its "fantastic efforts" and for being one of the best-performing centres in Britain.

Liberal Democrat MP, Ms Cooper, who is writing to the vaccines minister, said constituents had been asking why they could book an appointment in a centre 20 miles away, but not in their home town.

She said she wanted answers from the government about whether the issue was about supply or distribution.

"All I'm asking for is some transparency about when the vaccine is going to come and how much of it is there going to be, so people get a sense of when they are going to be able to get their jab and that helps people to plan," she said.

Dr Helen McAndrew, one of the joint clinical leads for the city's programme, said government media briefings about the roll out's success had raised "patient expectation about the availability".

She said appointments were not released until they knew there was supply but the shortage had "rather limited the number of appointments we can deliver".

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: "Vaccines are being distributed fairly across the UK to make sure the most vulnerable people in society are immunised first. Some parts of the country have made very significant progress and have gone slightly faster than the average.

"We're putting more supply into areas that have more to do and the rollout of vaccinations will continue to expand at pace as we work to offer a vaccine to all over-50s by mid-April."

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