Doctors’ leaders say the “unlimited supply” of vaccines to GPs in Scotland is hampering the speed of delivery to patients.
Ministers promised a first dose of the vaccine to 1.4 million of the most vulnerable Scots in mid-February.
But the British Medical Association in Scotland says the discrepancy in supply makes it difficult to plan appointments for patients – and some GP surgeries have not yet received a vaccine.
Dr Andrew Buist, chairman of the British Medical Association’s GPs’ committee in Scotland, says so far “good progress” has been made in giving priority to priority groups such as residents in the care home and health care professionals.
But he told the BBC’s program Politics Scotland: ‘The current problem lies with the next priority group, the 80-plus group, who are going to vaccinate general practitioners in Scotland because the supply of the vaccine has been rather inconvenient so far.
“Some practices have a good offer, others have had nothing so far.”
He says his practice has received 100 doses of the vaccine for 600 patients older than 80, all of whom must be vaccinated by February 5.
“We do not want to send appointments to patients until we know we can vaccinate them definitively, otherwise patients will get very upset.”
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has promised that the workforce and infrastructure will be in place to vaccinate 400,000 people each week by the end of February.
Meanwhile, no new Covid-related deaths have been reported in Scotland, and while 1,341 new cases of Covid-19 have been reported, it is the lowest daily figure since 28 December.
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