Plea for Scottish Government to take action on roll-out of vaccine in the north

A NORTH MSP has urged the Scottish Government to distribute the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to the remotest parts of the Highlands and Islands to ensure the over-80s age group get their first jab in early February.

Edward Mountain made the plea after Deputy First Minister, John Swinney, admitted there are challenges getting the Pfizer vaccine to remote communities as it comes in batches of up to 1000. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine comes in batches of up to 100 and would be more appropriate for areas with fewer people.

Mr Mountain, the Conservative MSP for the Highlands and Islands, said the delivery of the vaccine to the over-80s group needs to be speeded up. He said: "In remote communities, vaccination of the over 80s is patchy. I am hearing of some GPs who will only receive their first batch vaccine for this group this week, making the original target of vaccinating them by the end of January unachievable.

"Can you confirm that the revised target for completing the vaccination of the 80 plus group by February 6 will indeed be met in the Highlands and Islands - the GPs are not convinced - and if not, what additional support the Scottish Government will provide to speed-up the vaccine rollout in across my region?"

The Deputy First Minister replied: "Obviously when we get to some of the more remote communities that will be part of the Highland and Islands area, there will be challenges because of the, quite literally, batch sizes of the vaccine that will come in. The batch size for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is 80 or a 100. The Pfizer vaccine is much closer to a 1,000. So obviously there are constraints about the opportunities to utilise the different versions of the vaccine in different parts of the community.

"What I can assure Mr Mountain about is that very good progress is being made by NHS Highland in the distribution of the vaccine and we are confident that the targets we have set of completing this exercise by the end of the first week in February for over 80s will be met. The supplies, we believe, are available to ensure that is the case and I know that General Practitioners are wholly committed to ensuring this can be done with the timescale that has been set out."

Afterwards, Mr Mountain said: "One size does not fit all and it is clear that the Highlands has very different needs compared to the central belt when it comes to the vaccine rollout.

"We are fortunate to have a number of vaccine options at our disposal. The Scottish Government should distribute the Oxford-AstraZeneca version, which comes in smaller batches, to remote communities in the Highlands that require a smaller number of doses."

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