The BMA’s GP Committee has said it is having ‘urgent conversations’ with NHS England around whether GP practices in Greater London will take part in the polio vaccination campaign.
NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) last week tasked Greater London GP practices with identifying, contacting and delivering a polio booster jab to all children aged 1-9, and those who have not had a primary course.
They said delivery of the boosters should start ‘no later than 15 August’, with all 905,000 eligible one-to-nine-year-olds having been ‘offered a vaccination by 26 September’.
But the latest GPC bulletin set out that GP practice involvement in the campaign was ‘neither discussed nor agreed’ with the GPC or LMCs before it was announced last week.
It said: ‘The involvement of GP practices in this programme was neither discussed nor agreed with either GPC England, Londonwide LMCs (local medical committees) or Surrey and Sussex LMCs.
‘We are currently having urgent conversations with NHSE/I to reach an agreement on whether practices will be involved in the programme.’
It added that the BMA has raised ‘concerns regarding capacity to deliver any part of the programme and funding available for the work involved’ as part of these discussions.
The GPC said: ‘We have made clear our discontent with how this announcement was made prior to agreeing how this programme would be rolled out, especially as practices are already overburdened and do not have spare capacity.
‘We will ensure you are updated when progress is made.’
Pulse understands the discussions are ongoing.
An NHS England spokesperson told Pulse that the rollout has already started as planned.
Following the announcement last week, local GP leaders expressed ‘substantial concern’ about the ‘scale and timing’ of the urgent polio booster campaign and the effect on practice workload.
It comes as GP leaders have also warned of ‘serious concerns’ about the financial and workload implications of the autumn Covid booster programme due to start next month – especially in the capital where practices would have to simultaneously deliver Covid, flu and polio jabs.
READERS' COMMENTS [1]
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Most discussions these days, months and years end up with a ballot, pat on the back for having a meeting and amnesia of why you actually had the meeting. Right up the meetings, file it and shred it into the ether. Shut the blinds, don’t see what’s lurking outside your window. Don’t call out the toxic elements of NHSE. Let’s have another meeting. Let’s keep meeting. The classical narcissistic trait, self preservation.