Call for army to help with vaccine roll out in the north
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
NORTH MP Jamie Stone was shocked to discover the Scottish Government has not asked the army for help with the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine.
He has written to Scottish health secretary Jeane Freeman asking for a meeting with her and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace as "a matter of urgency".
Highlands and Islands Conservative MSP Edward Mountain has made a similar plea to the Scottish Government.
Mr Stone, the Liberal Democrat MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, hit out after raising "this grave situation" in the House of Commons.
He asked Mr Wallace if the Scottish Government had made the most of the Ministry of Defence's (MoD) quick reaction teams to help with rolling out vaccines. The minister said the Scottish Government has not made any requests for assistance from the military despite knowing the support is there.
Mr Stone said: "The Highlands and Islands are being robbed of their chance to be vaccinated. Our armed forces have done a great job in getting people in hard-to-reach areas tested during the pandemic and they could be helping us vaccinate people, but as the Secretary of State for Defence confirmed to me, the Scottish Government has not made any request for that help.
"I really hope that independence politics is being kept out of Covid-19 decision making and that every opportunity to vaccinate people in the Highlands and Islands is being taken, not wasted."
Mr Mountain is also urging the Scottish Government to take up the MoD’s offer of assistance with the Covid-19 vaccines.
He said: "I question why the Scottish Government haven’t made more requests for additional help from our armed services with the rollout of the vaccine.
"Only 32 personnel are helping with the logistics currently. However, there are thousands of soldiers stationed in Scotland who could be deployed if only the Scottish Government made that request.
"Our armed services personnel can play a vital role in logistics by setting up vaccination centres and can therefore take the pressure off the NHS so that they can administer the jabs.
"The army played a key role in operating Covid-19 testing centres at the start of the pandemic and we should call on them again to help with the vaccination rollout.”
A Scottish Government spokesman stressed the vaccination programme was "functioning well across Scotland".
He said: "The army is already supporting planning activity at national and local level across Scotland, and we will continue to look at how the armed forces can help the rollout of vaccines. Delivery of the vaccine is being taken forward by NHS Scotland. The Cabinet Secretary recently approved additional support from the army for rolling out the vaccine.
"We anticipate no delay to appointments during the rollout.
“Scotland will initially receive up to 533,640 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine over the course of January, with further doses becoming available via regular delivery throughout early 2021. Including the Pfizer vaccine, that gives us almost 900,000 doses in January. Those doses will be allocated to health boards on a population share basis."
The Scottish Government hopes up to 400,000 people could be given the Covid-19 vaccine every week by the end of February. By Wednesday, 208,207 people had received their first dose of the vaccine, while 3190 had also had a second dose.
Thurso and Halkirk Medical Practice is due to begin its vaccination programme for over 80s at Thurso High School games hall on Friday (Jan 14) while on Thursday Wick Riverside Practice was still awaiting confirmation of its first delivery of the vaccine.
The vaccine clinic in Thurso is being operated by appointment only and the practice says that all those due to receive their vaccine have been contacted.
