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GPs to get £15/jab as all adults to be offered Covid booster by 31 January

GPs to get £15/jab as all adults to be offered Covid booster by 31 January

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced a target for the NHS to give booster Covid jabs to all over-18s within two months.

Speaking at the same news conference, NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said the payment per vaccination would increase to £15 Mon-Saturday and £20 on Sundays and bank holidays so that GPs would be ‘properly rewarded for their efforts’.

And she said they are looking at whether the 15-minute post-vaccination observation period can be scrapped to speed up vaccinations.

Ms Pritchard also said CQC had agreed to continue to pause GP practice inspections, and that they were also looking at ‘cutting other burdens’ for GPs.

The Prime Minister said: ‘The target that we have set ourselves is to offer a booster to everyone eligible by the end of January – and as with the first jabs, we’ll be working through people by age group going down in five-year bands.’

Ms Pritchard confirmed that it is NHS England’s ‘intention to ensure that everyone eligible for a booster is given the chance to book one before the end of January’.

She added: ‘The NHS Covid vaccination programme was already in its most complex phase and staff are now working at breakneck speed to respond to this – the biggest change in eligibility since the programme was launched.

‘To make this happen, we will need to expand vaccination capacity right across the NHS.

‘Our hardworking GPs, community pharmacists and their primary care colleagues have delivered the lion’s share of the vaccinations so far. We’re looking at how we can help them to do even more jabs by cutting other burdens on them to free up clinicians’ time.’

She set out:

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  • Until the end of January, the payment for ‘standard’ vaccine delivery will increase to £15 per jab, an additional £5 per jab will be offered on Sundays and bank holidays to ‘increase capacity’ and vaccinations delivered to the housebound will be eligible for a £30 ‘premium’;
  • The CQC has ‘agreed to continue its pause on routine inspections of general practice to help free up clinicians’ time’;
  • NHS England is ‘looking at whether we can safely reduce or even eliminate the 15-minute wait after the jab is delivered’.

New JCVI advice on halving the gap between second doses and boosters means an additional 6.9m over-40s will be newly eligible for a booster, while the expansion of the programme to 18-39s has made more than 7m people in the age group eligible, Ms Pritchard added.

She set out that the programme will continue to prioritise the most vulnerable, meaning those who were ‘already eligible’ will be vaccinated first and then bookings opened to others in stages.

She is writing to the NHS to set out the next steps, she said.

It comes as GP leaders have called for GPs to be freed up to focus on speeding up the Covid booster jab campaign in response to the new Omicron variant of concern.

The JCVI yesterday recommended that the Covid booster jab campaign should be expanded to all over-18s in response to the Omicron variant.

It also recommended that a booster dose can be given three months after completion of the initial course of vaccination – a reduction from previous guidance of six months.

Further, 12 to 15-year-olds should have their second dose of Covid vaccine 12 weeks after their first dose and patients who are immunosuppressed should be offered a booster dose, three months after their third jab, which had completed their initial vaccination course.

The announcement came just weeks after the booster campaign was expanded to include over-40s, in addition to vulnerable and older adults.

GPs have also been asked to order a PCR test for patients who have returned from a number of African countries in the past 10 days, and isolate them in a side room ‘if possible’.

Please note: A previous version of this article said that the new target was for all adults to be jabbed by 31 January but NHS England clarified that it is for all adults to be offered an opportunity to be booked in for a jab by that date, although appointments may not take place until after it has passed. It was also corrected to reflect that the Sunday and bank holiday payment is £20.


          

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READERS' COMMENTS [6]

Please note, only GPs are permitted to add comments to articles

Patrufini Duffy 30 November, 2021 7:04 pm

That’s a pretty good deal.
Who would’ve thought. More money for the big practices. Whilst smaller ones see their patients.

Douglas Callow 30 November, 2021 7:05 pm

these will be done in the LVS wont they?

Some" Bloke 30 November, 2021 8:23 pm

It will be a good short term earner for some practices. But I don’t believe a word about intentions of “cutting other burdens”. Two months will be over… in a few weeks 😆After that- expecting more pestilence pouring down on my inadequately PPEed cranium.
And God forbids I make any profit from all this extra work, the growling expected under pay transparency rules is nothing to look forward to.

Bonglim Bong 30 November, 2021 10:05 pm

I want to see real movement on workload issues like:
– Public messaging that GPs should be prioritising jabs over appointments
– QOF and ES protection
– steps to be taken to actually reduce workload (the best I would say is referral management teams that actually have the ability to organise the pre-referral tests required, rather than bouncing back to the GP – so that GPs can refer at the point of need rather than organising tests first).

neo 99 30 November, 2021 11:31 pm

Really? So for a bit more money, GPs are once again prepared to compromise their values and forget all the vitriol, abuse and lack off support by NHSE, the government and the general population the last 6 months, despite pulling off the most audacious uk Vaccination program ever? So all the recent LMC motions, the threat of BMA action are empty and you are going to fall for Amanda Prichards attempt at a charm offensive towards “our hard working GPs” despite her lack of support recently? Many PCNs I know have abandoned covid vaccinations in lieu of the day job, qof catch up etc. This booster program is a political target made to make the government feel like they are doing something. We don’t even know how effective Vaccination is going to be against the omicron variant! Screw the government and ignore the call. Let larger Vaccination centres and pharmacies deal with the program. If many practices sign up to this and the empty promises of “reducing the burden” then GP deserves to remain in the gutter it currently is in.

Reply moderated
Beaker . 1 December, 2021 11:44 am

Get rid of all the ridiculous admin
Get rid of the 15 minute wait after a jab
Treat it like a flu clinic with 1 minute slots and we can get 15 times as many patients through in a day and be sorted by the end of December supplies permitting.

Keep the admin, keep the wait and it will be well past January