SNP must get a grip on vaccine shambles

ONLY hours after they announced a significant ramping up of the Covid vaccine drive, it’s clear that ministers are woefully ill prepared.

Yesterday, two days after the wait for a booster jab was reduced from six months to 12 weeks, reports emerged of scots being turned away from vaccine centres despite booking their appointment through official NHs channels.

Now the scottish Government has been forced into an apology – and ministers have instructed health boards to vaccinate in line with the latest advice.

Confusingly, the NHs Inform website was last night still ordering people to wait six months before getting a booster. What a hopeless mess.

With the new Omicron variant threatening to tear through the population, the sNP Government should have been fully prepared to step up the jabs drive as soon as it got the green light.

But, with worrying echoes of the initial days of the drive to get the vaccine into people’s arms, there are signs the scheme is struggling before it’s properly begun and our leaders are out of their depth.

It’s evident vaccine hubs aren’t in sync with political promises to ramp up immunisation in the vital effort to turn the tide against the new Covid variant.

More drop-in centres are needed to maximise the number of inoculations, but ministers believe they aren’t yet required.

scots vaccine centre workers are performing heroically day after day, trying to deliver shots into arms. However, with a massive increase in the number of people booking an appointment after the sixmonth wait was reduced, is it any wonder some venues struggled to jab everyone who turned up yesterday?

A massive recruitment drive is necessary to ensure that there are enough staff to administer the life-saving jabs and ensure we keep the new variant at bay.

Again, there is no concrete plan for how this can be achieved, in contrast with Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s detailed proposals earlier this week.

The Armed Forces have played a pivotal role in mass vaccination, despite apparent reluctance at times on the part of the Government to request their assistance.

Without delay, they should be drafted in again – after all, their logistical prowess is unequalled and ensured the speedy delivery of vaccine and testing centres across scotland in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.

For many, there will be an uncomfortable sense of recent history repeating itself.

This looks like another textbook example of a government being asked to step up but failing to deliver.

But we’re in a race against time to shore up our defences against the new Covid variant. Getting it wrong increases the likelihood of further restrictions, and indeed a rise in preventable deaths.