Aultbea and Gairloch GP practice hits out at NHS Highland over handling of Covid booster vaccination programme
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The Aultbea and Gairloch Medical Practice says NHS Highland failed to respond to repeated offers to help.
In a post on the practice's Facebook page this week Doctors Gerard Baptist, Kirsten Vickerstaff, Kirstin Haga and Graham Robertson said: “NHS Highland contacted all north Highland GP practices on Wednesday, September 29, asking if we wished to be involved in delivering boosters to our patients.
“Practices were given two days to respond.
“The offer to practices required us to record all vaccinations using an online tool which is incompatible with our local delivery model.”
The doctors said using their own model they had successfully delivered more than 4000 Covid and flu vaccinations during the past 10 months.
“On October 1, we declined the initial contract, and instead made an offer to vaccinate all of our eligible patients with Covid boosters in return for some additional help from NHS Highland to help us deal with the poor mobile and wi-fi connectivity in the area,” they added.
They said they have had no reply at all to that offer in spite of “multiple requests”.
They continued: “On November 1, we learned that NHS Highland has made arrangements to deliver Covid boosters locally using NHS Highland employees backed up with national support teams brought in from outside the area.
“We have expressed our disappointment and frustration in the strongest terms to NHS Highland about the way this plan has been drawn up with no GP practice involvement or communication.”
Last week the Journal reported how a number of elderly Ross-shire residents had been left alarmed at receiving letters advising of booster clinics in either Inverness or Wick.
Many have also complained about the difficulty accessing advice and information via a dedicated phoneline.
Highlands and Islands Conservative MSP Edward Mountain said: “NHS Highland have singularly failed in the last two weeks to communicate properly with people receiving Covid boosters and have also failed to liaise with GPs to ensure a smooth rollout of Covid and flu vaccinations.
“This is absolutely shocking and NHS Highland need to up their game.”
A spokeswoman for Labour MSP Rhoda Grant said she would be raising the issue in parliament while SNP member Emma Roddick said it was clear staff were working “flat out”, but added: “I hope that NHS Highland will at the very least communicate with practices who are looking for help and explore options to address the concerns they’ve raised, for the sake of patients and the hardworking staff.”
Responding to Gairloch’s criticisms a spokesman for NHS Highland said: “We apologise for the tight deadlines, however, they were necessary to ensure the board had a clear plan in place ahead of the rollout of the vaccination programmes.
“We have updated our website to include all of the local clinics we are running across our board area for Covid-19 boosters/third dose vaccines and the flu vaccination programme.
“We are grateful to the practice for their offer of support and we are in discussions with the practice about how we can work together to deliver the Covid-19 boosters/ third doses to their patients.”
