Vaccine supply steady now after hospital chiefs say it had been ‘hand to mouth’

Supplies of vaccines have become steadier in parts of Greater Manchester after hospitals said the situation with stock last week was ‘hand to mouth’.

Hospital hubs in Oldham, Rochdale, Salford and Bury and the mass vaccination centre at the Etihad in Manchester now have a week’s schedule of supplies.

Salford’s supplies of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is also said to be ‘more readily available’ within the city’s vaccination programme which is run by GPs.

It comes after councillors called on the government to sort out supply issues.

Northern Care Alliance (NCA), the NHS group which runs four hospitals in Greater Manchester as well as the mass vaccination centre at the Etihad, has administered more than 30,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine so far.

Chief of people Nicky Clarke told the NCA board at a meeting on Monday that supplies are managed centrally and allocated nationally according to usage.

She said: “Up until last week it was relatively hand to mouth, but did work.

“It’s actually got better over the weekend because they’ve now given us a week’s forward view on when stock will be coming.

“We’ve got fairly robust arrangements in place around supply, so no issues.”

The NCA has been vaccinating outpatients aged 80 and above at their hospitals, but this offer is being extended to those over 70 from this week.

NHS England also invited over-80s to the Etihad mass vaccination centre, which is managed by the NCA, and is now sending letters to over-70s too.

But the majority of elderly patients are being vaccinated by GPs, the chief said.

She added: “Not all primary care networks have the same capacity to do vaccination. It varies by locality. The [Etihad] vaccination centre has done a lot of over-80s from around Greater Manchester – the people who’ve been able to get there.

“The important thing is that the national system where we update who’s had the vaccination on it, feeds into an individual’s GP record so the primary care networks get to know who’s had it and obviously their hospital record is updated accordingly.

“I would say for the vulnerable patients and the extremely clinically vulnerable, the majority will be done by primary care.”

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