NHS staff will no longer be among the first people to be vaccinated against Covid-19 after a rethink about who should be given priority, The Guardian reports.
Frontline workers were due to have the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in the first stage of its roll-out.
But last week, NHS Providers confirmed the news that NHS staff had been moved back in the queue.
“Care home residents, care home staff, the elderly and people who are clinically vulnerable will get priority,” its statement read.
Their announcement follows guidance by the JCVI on priority groups.
Guidance confirmed: “This priority list is as follows:
- residents in a care home for older adults and their carers
- all those 80 years of age and over and frontline health and social care workers.”
Meanwhile, Pulse reports, the JCVI has also advised that GPs should be prioritised for Covid vaccination based on their personal risk level.
Prof Wei Shen Lim told a press conference on Wednesday that ‘the JCVI has advised that there are certain frontline healthcare and social care workers who should be offered higher priority’, Costanza Pearce reported.
Dr Richard Fieldhouse, chair of the NASGP, writes: “Every GP understands the complex nature of making decisions about prioritising health resources, especially ones so emotive as vaccinating against Covid-19. All we continue to ask is that the JCVI recognise that GP locums are frontline workers too, so not to inadvertently leave members of this vital cohort out of the first waves of vaccinations.”
