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The apparent problems in Wales are due to political failings and poor communication as much as anything. Drakeford’s crass comment on the vaccine roll out yesterday “it’s not a sprint” does nothing to allay the fears of the people about the competence of our political leaders.
I think the NHS in Wales is doing everything they can to get the vaccines into peoples arms as rapidly as possible but are not helped by issues of limited vaccine supply. Also Wales may be targeting frontline health and social care workers more than other home nations meaning the over-80s would likely be marginally delayed? The commencement of the roll out of the AstraZeneca vaccine to GP surgeries this week should rapidly improve this situation.
Communications in Wales do need to be improved. Every GP surgery in Cardiff and the Vale has now signed up to the mass vaccination programme but you wouldn’t know this if you visited my GP practice website which only has an out of date message from December stating they are not part of the vaccination plan so please don’t call!
If politicians choose to use the vaccination programme as a means of courting good publicity then they deserve to be criticised when the roll out doesn’t match their grand pronouncements. But this is a political failure, not an NHS one. The NHS is working flat out and needs everyone’s support to make the vaccine roll out a success.
Im really disappointed with Mark Drakeford's attitude and crass comments too. On Friday he said that he doesn't know how much Pfizer vaccine Wales has( it's about 150,000 doses), and has only two weeks data on how much Oxford vaccine is coming. Then he says 20 GP practices are on stream to vaccinate, increasing to 75 this week, and up to 200 by the end of February!!
Have a look at BBC News website for Scotland, approx twice the population of Wales. They have 500,000 doses of Oxford vaccine to use in January ( which means Wales would have about half that amount)and 1,100 GP practices and vaccination sites already set up.
What does it mean in the real world. In Scotland and England the top three priority groups will be vaccinated by Mid February. In Wales, even if we double what we are doing now it will take until May.
Currently we have an awful death rate from Covid in Wales, worse in UK, per head of population. We have hospitals on their knees, we have two vaccines that can stop all of this....and ' It's not a sprint".....Thank you Mark Drakeford
See that Germany has broken EU Protocol by procuring extra vaccines despite Von Der Leyen’s proclamations.
Hope that Ireland can manage to as well.
The lady in charge of the vaccine programme in Wales was interviewed on Radio 5 on Friday morning and I switched the radio off when she replied that "it was not a competition" when, legitimately, asked why Wales is lagging behind the other home nations when it comes to getting people vaccinated. Therefore, it would seem that there is something of a standard response to these questions among the people in power in Wales - if it really takes until May for the first three groups to get vaccinated in Wales, then that will, surely, result in them being voted out just as the fourth group start getting their jabs weeks after the rest of the country.
What an insensitive and politically damaging thing to say!
We seem to be struggling with distribution and not surprised because Wales Gov wants to keep it all in house and have the NHS and Wales Blood service distributing. Im sure they manage on normal days to day stuff but they wouldn't have experience of anything on this scale.
Shame is there is an expert medicines wholesaler specialising in distributing direct to GP surgeries, the biggest in UK and its based here in one of the South Wales valleys.
I did have some sympathy for drakeford as it’s one hell of a job, but if they can’t sort this out efficiently whilst taking away all our freedoms then what do they expect people to think? Talk about dangerling a carrot of hope to people......he’s going to lose the respect of most and that’s dangerous.
If it takes until May for the WG to vaccinate the first group and England does it by mid February then Drakeford and Gethin shouldnt even stand in the elections. They would have to resign.
Ive never voted in the assembly elections but would have to make a point and try to vote them out if they stood .
The same applies in England. I think Johnson and Hancock should be out anyway with their complete mismanagement. But this one fail again on the February target they should do the same. Resign.
Hopefully both do this by mid Feb.
The February target is not to have the first 4 tranches completed by Mid February but to offer those in the 4 groups vaccine appointments by Mid February. Both Johnson and Hancock have made such clarifications. However it was foolish of the government to make such promises as they have a record of over promising and under delivering.
The number of vaccines completed on a daily basis in England will be published from tomorrow. Presumably the Welsh figures will also be published.
Pretty sure I heard or read somewhere that daily figures would be available for Wales from tomorrow- they certainly should be if they are in England. The WAG have had a pretty easy ride in the Welsh media up to now, but they should be hammered on this if the figures remain as poor as they have been up to now.
I think the poor performance of Wales so far has something to do with the fact that up to now only the Pfizer jab has been available and there simply are insufficient refrigeration facilities in Wales to hold this vaccine in the required quantities. However, with the Oxford vaccine coming on stream, the shortage of refrigeration should not be an issue.
One possible drawback in Wales is that they do not appear to be using the army to work with the NHS to plan the logistics. I could be wrong there but the Brigadier in charge of logistics at a recent Press Conference deliberately made the point that he was working only with authorities in England.
The Pfizer jab is a bit quirky regarding distribution but should not be a problem. In Wales -70c storage means the vaccine is held in two sites, I know not where. From there the vaccine can be moved around for up to 5 days at fridge temperature. It comes as a frozen powder a vial containing five doses. Once the powder has thawed it needs to diluted. So far nothing too difficult. Once diluted the 5 dose vial must be used within 6 hours. With dilution it must not be vigourously agitated, but must gently rotated to get the powder dissolved. Once in liquid form it cannot be transported by a motor vehicle ( because the transport might cause agitation)....so in effect it should be diluted at the place it is going to be used, like say a nursing/ care home.
In practice a team should be able to move into a nursing home/ village hall etc. and get going. With a bit of forward planning it should not be a problem.