'Significant variation' in vaccination between Scottish health boards as UK Government offers aid to speed up rollout

There is ‘significant variation' in the speed of the Covid-19 vaccine rollout between health boards in Scotland, Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has admitted.

The main entrance to the coronavirus mass vaccine centre at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.

The health secretary told MSPs on Tuesday that the rollout needs to be “faster” in Scotland, and pledged that the rate will increase from this week.

It comes after Ms Freeman’s initial target of one million Scots vaccinated by the end of January was missed, along with the target given in early January of offering a vaccine to everyone over the age of 80 by the end of that month.

As of Tuesday, 610,778 Scots had been given a first dose, including 98 per cent of older care home residents, 83 per cent of adults over 80, and 21 per cent of adults aged 75 to 79.

Monday saw the highest ever daily total of doses given, at 34,881, as further mass vaccination centres began to open around the country.

But some health boards have moved to begin vaccinating people in the 65 to 69 age group, while in other areas patients over 80 have still not received an appointment.

Speaking at Topical Questions in the Scottish Parliament, Ms Freeman said: “There has been variation – quite significant variation – between health boards.

"That is reducing as we sit with each board looking at their plans, their numbers, and identifying where the variation is unacceptable and that we need them to do more.”

Despite a minor storage issue on Monday resulting in vaccine appointments being cancelled at one clinic in Dumfries and Galloway, the health board has been moving through doses more quickly than Scotland as a whole, and has begun vaccination of 65 to 69 year olds. NHS Dumfries and Galloway aims to give a first dose to everyone over 65 by February 14, while the Scottish Government’s target for the nation as a whole is for all over 70s to be vaccinated by that date.

Most recent comparable data shows that as of last week, some 12 per cent of the population in Dumfries and Galloway had been given a first dose, one of the highest rates alongside NHS Highland, Orkney and Western Isles.

Figures to date have shown a trend of higher percentages of population being vaccinated in less densely populated areas.

NHS Lothian lags behind at just seven per cent of population, which officials have attributed to the high number of care homes in the region.

Ms Freeman said some boards, such as NHS Ayrshire and Arran, had begun planning of vaccination clinics “too late” and were now working to bring forward appointments.

“We’re doing as much as we can, looking in great detail at what each board is doing and making sure that they are communicating clearly with those that they’re responsible for, but that where there are things that need (to be) fixed, like the distribution and supply of vaccines across Scotland, that we’re taking steps to improve that,” she said.

Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie praised the vaccine rollout for “moving in the right direction”, but criticised Scotland’s lag behind England.

While Scotland has vaccinated around 13 per cent of its adult population, that figure is above 18 per cent in England.

“I want to praise the NHS teams for vaccinating 35,000 people yesterday. At last, we are moving in the right direction but it has taken seven weeks and we are still behind the rate in England,” Mr Rennie said.

“The First Minister continues to cling onto the care homes as the reason for the slow rollout. But there is no reason why the rest of the programme had to wait for them to be done.

“Both the army and GPs have offered assistance to help speed up the rollout, the First Minister should look at how we can put this expertise to use getting jabs into arms.”

Conservative MSP Ruth Davidson said: “All the evidence shows the rollout is slow, stuttering and lagging way behind the rest of the UK.”

She added: “Nicola Sturgeon didn’t explain why the rollout in Scotland is so far behind. She’s finally accepted this isn’t going well – but we still don’t know how the SNP are going to fix it.”

A row over the publication of vaccine supply figures in Scotland continues, after Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said over the weekend that the country would have access to 1,150,000 doses by Monday.

Ms Freeman labelled these figures as incorrect on Tuesday, when asked about them by Labour’s Daniel Johnson.

"Scotland has the lowest vaccination rate across the devolved nations, and indeed the English regions,” he said.

"The Scottish Secretary has also claimed that half a million vaccines remain in storage [...] why are we behind, what is being done to catch up, and are we vaccinating enough people each day?”

Ms Freeman said she did not want to enter a debate on the publication of supply figures.

"We deliberately, consciously and in a spirit of cooperation agreed not to publish numbers [...] in order to respect commercial confidentiality and the wishes of the UK Government,” she said.

"You cannot square that position with the Secretary of State for Scotland constantly appearing on broadcast media and print media quoting numbers that we apparently are not allowed to respond to.

"The simple point I would make is, he’s wrong. He’s wrong about that number that he says are in storage.”

Mr Jack wrote to Nicola Sturgeon on Tuesday to offer the UK Government’s “full support” in rolling out the vaccination plan in Scotland.

"I’m sure you would agree with me that it is in everyone’s interests that progress in vaccinating the people of Scotland matches the best efforts of the rest of the UK,” he wrote.

“With that in mind, we stand ready to offer any support or assistance we can give you to accelerate your rollout programme.”

Mr Jack mentioned military and health service mutual aid across different parts of the UK.

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