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up to the mass vaccination programme but you wouldn’t know this if you visited my GP practice website which only has an out of date message from December stating they are not part of the vaccination plan so please don’t call!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.