Swine flu jabs put back to autumn

Published on Wednesday 5 August 2009 22:03

THE start of Scotland's swine flu vaccination programme seems to have slipped back, with the first jabs perhaps not now being given until the autumn.

The first supplies of vaccine are expected to arrive in the country later this month, and the Scottish Government had previously said it was planning on the basis of being able to deliver the jabs from then.

But now a spokeswoman says it is more likely that a vaccination programme will start "in the autumn".

Doctors have expressed doubts over the speed at which vaccines could be made available, with key decisions over priority groups for the shots and staffing for extra clinics still to be made.

Two weeks ago, a Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "We have always said that the first vaccine deliveries may come in August and, for that reason, we need to plan on the basis of being able to deliver a vaccine from August."

But yesterday, a spokeswoman said: "Scotland is preparing very well for an H1N1 vaccine. The first vaccine deliveries may come in August, and we are preparing to begin the programme in the autumn."

She added: "We are preparing rigorously to ensure that the NHS is ready whenever the H1N1 vaccine arrives – but this does not necessarily mean that vaccination will commence immediately.

"The start-point for the programme will need to take account of the procurement process for the vaccine, the licensing position and scientific advice about safety."

Doctors yesterday said they believed it was unlikely that vaccinations would start within the next few weeks.

Edinburgh GP Dr John Garner said he was not expecting to start vaccinating patients from the end of this month, and that he believed a programme would start in September or October.

He said guidance received by GPs so far had suggested that supplies could arrive with them by the end of August.

He added: "If we have vaccines, we would be wanting to start almost immediately. But we would like some time to plan so, if we were going to be doing Saturday and Sunday morning clinics, we have the staff there to be able to do that.

"We have had absolutely nothing yet on what we will be expected to do, what the priority groups are, how we are going to fund this. We are in the dark at the moment."

Dr Dean Marshall, chairman of the British Medical Association's Scottish GPs committee, said they had been planning on the assumption that the first supplies of vaccine would be arriving at the end of August.

"That would then take a couple of weeks to be distributed out across the country," he said. "Then we have to decide how quickly we could get started."

Yesterday, it emerged that British people were among 6,000 taking part in trials of a swine flu vaccine being made by the Swiss-based pharmaceutical company Novartis. Its vaccines will be used mainly in the United States. Britain is being supplied by GSK and Baxter.

FEARS OVER READINESS

CONCERNS have been raised about how prepared Scotland will be for an expected increase in swine flu cases, after a report claimed more needs to be done to prepare for emergencies.

The Audit Scotland report published today says that public organisations could still work better to deal with emergencies.

The report says that: there are still barriers to joint working; lessons from incidents are not shared widely; planning for business continuity management and recovery is not well developed; and arrangements for different organisations working together are unclear.

It also highlighted problems with cross-border relations between the UK and Scottish governments.

Labour said that it showed that there should be "no complacency" over Scotland's ability to tackle swine flu.

SNP justice secretary Kenny MacAskill welcomed the report and said lessons are being learned.

The report comes as legal advice and outsourcing firm Employment Law Advisory Services has warned that swine flu may be becoming "a skiver's charter".