With just two months until Covid vaccines become mandatory for NHS workers in England, the debate over the Government’s controversial new legislation, known as “vaccination as a condition of deployment” (VCOD), rages on. As things currently stand, in order for a person to have received two doses of the Covid vaccine by 31st March 2022,…

Practices have been urged to focus on “clinical prioritisation” amid multiple challenges as the NHS struggles with the Omicron surge. GPs are their staff are now “bracing for impact,” GP leader Dr Farah Jameel warned yesterday. It came as a national shortage of PCR testing left practices unable to certify staff as fit for work.…

Practices in England are to get a significant increase in payments for COVID vaccinations next week as the government seeks to maintain them at a million a day. NHS England has offered £20 a vaccination throughout the holiday week, starting with this Saturday, Christmas Day, it has been revealed. Practices have also been offered relief…

There’s no question that the last 17 months have been especially challenging for general practice. But could things be about to get worse? COVID-19 is refusing to fade into the background, and the length of the pandemic is in itself creating issues; there’s a huge backlog of built-up demand that’s now flooding general practice. At…

According to the Office for National Statistics*, over one million people have reported experiencing long COVID – i.e., symptoms caused by COVID-19 infection which can last for weeks or months. The NHS lists common symptoms as extreme tiredness, shortness of breath, problems with memory and concentration, difficulty sleeping, and depression and anxiety, to name but…

Practices could face “arbitrary” limits on vaccine numbers when they take part in a planned massive programme of booster vaccination, it has been claimed. NHS England guidance, released yesterday, envisaged three million vaccines being delivered weekly. It followed the government receiving advice earlier this week to begin booster vaccines for the most vulnerable people in…

A booster vaccine programme for the most vulnerable people is likely to begin in September, it has been announced. The move was proposed by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation in advance of the findings of clinical trials of booster injections. The committee has proposed that the vulnerable get a double injection of a…