Covid vaccine: Allocation 'almost unethical', says Llanelli GP

Dr Dai Hickman said GPs were "in the firing line" when telling patients the vaccine was not yet available in their practice

A GP has criticised his health board for giving vaccines to surgeries one at a time instead of sharing supplies equally, calling it "almost unethical".

Dr Dai Hickman, from the Avenue Villa Surgery in Llanelli, said he could not order supplies until 25 January.

The Carmarthenshire practice has 10,000 patients, about 400 of whom are from the most vulnerable categories.

Hywel Dda health board said surgeries with the vaccine had been advised to share with neighbouring practices.

It said practices that had been unable to order vaccines would be able to access supplies coming into the health board from 18 January.

In Wales, some GP surgeries are managed by health boards and others by GP partners.

Wales' health boards need to apply to Public Health England for vaccine supplies and Dr Hickman said he thought his health board was prioritising the surgeries it managed itself.

But Hywel Dda University Health Board said it was doing "everything we can to support practices through the process".

"We are supporting our directly managed practices as they are unable to access the Public Health England system themselves," Jill Paterson, Director of Primary Care, Community and Long Term Care at the health board said.

But Dr Hickman said it had been extremely frustrating having to tell patients to wait when neighbouring surgeries had already begun vaccinating.

'Poor decision'

He said: "I acknowledge there are supply issues, but give everyone a few doses - give everyone the same amount to get started.

"This business of surgeries going in turn really is almost unethical because why are my 80 year olds less vulnerable than the 80 year olds in another practice - they're not and they should be treated the same.

"The decision is a poor decision in my opinion."

He continued: "We've got the staff, we've got the time. We could start tomorrow if we had the vaccine. I'm really frustrated.

"We're having to say 'sorry' even though we've got no control over the supply - yet we're in the firing line."

'Not in our gift'

Ms Paterson from the health board added: "Our hope is that all practices in the Hywel Dda area will be registered and able to draw down supplies directly in the shortest possible time.

"It's important to explain that there is a national registration system in place to enable direct orders and deliveries to practices. Whilst this system is not in our gift, we are doing everything we can to support practices through the process...

"All practices who have been able to order vaccines have been advised that they should be sharing with their neighbouring practices to ensure they are vaccinating their care home residents as a priority."