Further practices are due to begin COVID-19 vaccination today – although dozens of patients were disappointed yesterday when vaccines failed to arrive.

At least 200 appointments were lost in Southport, Merseyside, in Gillingham, Kent, and Kingston, Surrey, because of non-arrival, it was reported. NHS England claimed delays were because practices had not completed safety checks – although some practices disputed this.

Dr Yvette Rean, from Gillingham, told the BBC: “We’ve had to cancel 80 patients who had all arranged transport. It’s chaos and it’s not fair on the patients or the GP practices and staff. We are having to rebook for a full day of vaccinating. There isn’t a central booking system in place, so this is having to be done manually, so it is a logistical nightmare. All this and we are running our GP service at the same time.”

Dr Richard Van Mellaerts, medical director at Kingston GP federation, said the rollout had been “a shambles” – but later added that vaccines had arrived yesterday morning.
He said: “I’ve had staff in on Saturday and Sunday waiting for deliveries that never arrived. We have moved heaven and earth despite constantly increasing demands and are fed up.”

In Scotland vaccines were taken to care homes yesterday while Leicestershire said its first primary care vaccinations would begin today, some of them in the city of Leicester.

Dr Gopi Boora, GP and clinical lead for Millennium Primary Care Network in Leicester, is due to administer the first vaccine himself. He said: “I am proud that Millennium Primary Care Network are up and running with our vaccination programme and relieved that the most vulnerable patients in our practices will, in a few weeks’ time, be protected against COVID-19.”