GPs are refusing to jab any more Brits before Christmas in a major blow to the UK’s Covid vaccination programme.
Some family doctors have turned down a second delivery of 975 doses that the NHS had offered to deliver next week.
They claim booking appointments and giving the shot proved “very, very wearing” for practice staff and took too much time.
It could prove a setback to Boris Johnson’s aim of vaccinating 25million vulnerable adults and relaxing restrictions by Easter.
Dr Richard Van Mellaerts, from Kingston Primary Care Network, is among those to have opted out of giving more jabs next week.
He told GPOnline: “It’s enormously labour intensive to call 975 older people, who have questions and concerns. I’ve found it’s taken staff up to 15 minutes to book an appointment, and if you multiply that across 975 people, that’s rather a lot of time.”
He added: “We were able to provide the first batch effectively by devoting the most enormous number of our staff to it, and taking them off normal activities.
“It’s not sustainable to continue to work that way, one at short notice, and two that relentlessly without normal patient service coming to harm.”
Another GP from the north east of England agreed that it would be difficult to run normal services while taking on more jabs.
She said: “My practice is losing 90 to 120 GP appointments next week whilst we are vaccinating. Where are the patients going to go?”
Dr Nikki Kanani, director of primary care at NHS England, took to Twitter to plead with GPs, writing: “Please do more.”
She added: “You don’t have to! Just trying to get good population coverage.”
