Decision on booster programme welcome, but primary care will need support

Commenting on the COVID-19 vaccination booster programme announcement, Ruth Rankine, director of primary care at the NHS Confederation, said: 

“Our members will welcome confirmation of this final decision following weeks of uncertainty about the plans. Primary care has played a crucial part in the highly successful roll out of the vaccination programme to date and will continue to deliver to protect their patients and the public.”

“However, this comes on the back of yesterday’s announcement about vaccinating 12–15-year-olds so we must also acknowledge the amount of time and investment that will be needed to deliver both these programmes alongside the flu vaccination programme, set against what is already an extremely busy time with primary care seeing a huge increase in demand coupled with increasingly complex cases, and managing patients waiting for secondary care treatment”