The government is assuming a COVID vaccine booster programme will be needed this autumn – although one expert has raised doubts about its necessity, it has been reported.

Health secretary Matt Hancock spoke on Monday of “plans for the booster programme”, leading GP leaders to warn they do not have the resources to administer another mass vaccination programme. Another senior NHS official warned that boosters might be needed for up to ten years. Speaking to the BBC, Mr Hancock acknowledged the challenges practices might face in delivering a booster programme. Unlike the flu vaccine programme, it would involve all adults. He stressed that the government does not yet know the outcome of a trial of booster vaccines.

He said: “When we know the results of that (trial), then we will set out the full plans for the booster programme over the autumn. We’ve got to make sure we get the logistics right; for instance, GPs have been so heavily involved in this vaccination effort, but GPs have also got to do their day job, so that’s something we’re working hard on now and, in the next few weeks, when we get the clinical data through on what’s the most effective combinations to have, then we’ll set out all the details of the booster programme for the autumn.”

NHS Providers chief executive Chris Hopson said: “Flu jabs start in September, so if we’re going to do one jab in one arm, one jab in the other, we really do need to know quite quickly.”

But Royal College of GPs chair Professor Martin Marshall told the BBC: “In general practice – where three-quarters of the vaccines have been given – our GPs and nurses are extremely busy. Is it possible that a booster campaign can be given by non-clinical trained vaccination staff? It needs to be adequately resourced to allow us to do it well. We can’t have GPs and practice nurses and pharmacists diverted away from normal business, because we can’t afford to let our patients down on all the many other things that we do in general practice.”

Last week Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, who has led vaccine development at Oxford University, told MPs that two doses were already providing “very high” protection against hospitalisation. He said: “We have absolutely no evidence that there is a need for a third dose.”