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Ruth Rankine, director of the NHS Confederation’s PCN Network, responded to the latest Downing Street press conference 

“While supply has been patchy in some areas, the NHS has administered over 12.2 million coronavirus vaccinations over the last two months and it remains on track to meet the Government’s target to have offered vaccines to the top four priority groups by the end of this week.

“Most people are coming forward for their jabs and we have a lot to celebrate with this programme but we know there are groups of the population who remain hesitant to come forward. This is a real challenge that primary care leaders are facing across their patient communities but we have seen some fantastic examples of innovation in how they are improving access to the vaccination programme through better public information, engagement with local leaders and setting up vaccination facilities in community settings.

“The shift in national policy towards encouraging people who are aged over 70 and have not been immunised to get in touch to book in their first doses leaves little time for practice teams to prepare for the inevitable spike in calls in the morning but it is vitally important and will be welcomed by our members.

“In addition, Primary Care Networks will continue to contact the clinically vulnerable who are among the top four priority groups.

“As the Secretary of State has said, there are still too many cases of coronavirus in the community and there are more patients in hospital with the disease now than we saw in the peaks in April and November, so protecting everyone as much as we can is key to supporting the NHS and considering how and when the lockdown restrictions can be relaxed at the appropriate point.”