I agree that it would be better but I suspect it comes down to the shear practicality of getting hold of someone who can get to the centre at very short notice
The practicalities of that sound somewhat challenging to be honest. Calling up 70 year-old Ethel to rush down just risks worrying her in case she thinks she'll miss it & not get it at all. I think the rollout has worked very well and has got everybody who would be classed as vulnerable a jab quite rapidly, so if it's a case of bombing through as many people as possible at 5:45 then I think it's fair enough just to get people through the door.
At vaxing the numbers it as worked well but at actually doing them in order of category at a place close to where they live I think otherwise. I am 74 and had to go the Wakey which was the nearest on offer. Wife just received her letter and nowhere local is on offer so she as to wait . Don't see why the organisation of this needed to be different to the flu vaccine which normally vaccinated the older generations first.
If the NHS teams have contingency and can react by vaccinating people not on the priority list for the right scenarios then thats ok as long as they manage it. An example is where we had the snow and many on the list cancelled their jab appointments. Reacting but using jabs on people outside of the target group is the right thing for me when that cant access the target group. This avoids waste, cost and improves the situation by maintaining roll out levels. if the NHS are advising people in the target group to also Proactively register or book an appointment then thats ok too. Its after all still the target group. If individuals manipulate, cheat and lie to get up the queue into groups they don't belong then that is clearly morally wrong. I wouldn't think there is much to debate.
I was led to believe that these vaccines that are going spare, are only spare because they're left over at the end of the day and would ultimately go to waste. If a doctors surgery is offering someone a vaccine that would ordinarily go to waste, then I don't see the issue in that person accepting it, even if they're not due to receive it yet.
I have heard that at a local vaccination centre, at the end of the day they will jab anyone just to use up the vaccine because it's the Pfizer one and they don't have a freezer to keep it till the next day. This is clearly better than chucking it away but it seems like bad planning to me. I don't know if anyone has deliberately wandered down there at the end of the day to take advantage of it but I wouldn't be surprised. Under these circumstances, I'm not too troubled by it to be honest.
They will have planned to use all the vaccines that day, but if folk don't turn up for their appointment then there will be some left over that day.
