Chamber and committees

Our intention is to have offered first doses to everyone on the JCVI priority list by mid-April, supplies permitting.

Beyond that - again assuming we receive adequate supply - we will aim to have offered first doses to the entire adult population by the end of July, earlier than the planned date of September.

In the national programme we have the workforce and the infrastructure capacity to vaccinate 400,000 people, supply permitting. Vaccination will take place in care homes, where needed into people’s own homes, through GP surgeries, local vaccination clinics, community pharmacies, mobile vaccination units and mass vaccination centres. The locations used will be chosen to maximise the number we can vaccinate while making it as accessible and easy as possible for people to come to their appointment.

We want to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible and are continually working hard to see if distribution can be made faster. Our Chief Pharmaceutical Officer wrote on to all GPs and Health Boards explaining in more detail the mechanism of supply, ordering and delivery, with suggested solutions at local board level including the local pharmacies that can also assist them. We are in regular contact with boards to ensure GPs have the most up to date information on when supply is available and what our expectations are for them.

We want to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible and are continually working hard to see if distribution can be made faster. Our Chief Pharmaceutical Officer wrote on to all GPs and Health Boards explaining in more detail the mechanism of supply, ordering and delivery, with suggested solutions at local board level that can also assist them.

We are in regular contact with boards to ensure GPs have the most up to date information on when supply is available and what our expectations are for them. We provide as much detail as we can while rightly allowing our teams to focus on the task of delivering the biggest vaccination programme ever seen in Scotland.

I refer the member to answer S5W-35127 on 5 March 2021. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

I refer the member to answer S5W-35127 on 5 March 2021. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Health boards are responsible for ensuring venues are accessible and will make appropriate adjustment to ensure that all vaccination sites are accessible to all. Responsibilities are set out in the Equalities Act 2010 and other relevant legislation such as the Social Care ( Self-Directed Support ) Act 2013.

The Scottish Government is working with the voluntary and third sector to set up a centralised volunteer coordination hub to make good use of the locally offered support and in particular for deployment at mass vaccination clinics and to help people who need assistance to access local clinics.

For those who are housebound, there will be domiciliary visits (either by the community nursing team attached to the health centre or a community vaccination team.

Anyone who has been called forward for a vaccine and who would like additional help, should call the Scottish COVID-19 Vaccination Helpline (0800 030 8013).

Local authorities are working in partnership with health boards to provide information on travel to vaccination centres including the provision of community transport if appropriate. In remote and rural areas local authorities are supporting transportation and in some places mobile vaccination facilities are being used to reach people.

We are asking people to attend the appointments they have been allocated if they possibly can. We would encourage people to accept that they may not necessarily be given an appointment at the centre closest to them, as the principle objective is to vaccinate as many people as we possibly can as fast as we can. However, in instances where individuals are unable to travel due to a mobility issue, complex medical need or other we would ask them to phone the national Covid Vaccination Appointment booking number to book an appointment at a more convenient location.

If the nature of the person’s condition means that they cannot travel at all, Service Now should pass that call to the local health board call handlers to arrange a more local solution which would be either at their GP Practice or to be vaccinated in their own home if they are housebound.

Vaccinations are taking place differently across Scotland to reflect the needs of local communities. It is NHS Scotland who will confirm local arrangements and who will invite the eligible cohort by letter to receive a COVID-19 vaccine

Furthermore, members of public can phone the Coronavirus Vaccination Helpline on 0800 0308013 (available 8am to 8pm, 7 days a week).

More general information about the coronavirus vaccine and its delivery is also available at NHS Inform

Our top priority is to vaccinate as many people as we can as quickly as possible, starting with those at the highest clinical risk. This includes residents in care homes and the staff who provide their care.

The Scottish Government continues to monitor COVID-19 cases and vaccinations, and publishes this information regularly on its website, available here: Coronavirus (COVID-19): daily data for Scotland - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Although not specific to care homes, the University of Edinburgh did recently publish a study on reduction in hospital admissions from the vaccine. From their study sample they found that by the fourth week after receiving the initial dose, the Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines were shown to reduce the risk of hospitalisation from COVID-19 by up to 85 per cent and 94 per cent, respectively. And among those aged 80 years and over, one of the highest risk groups, vaccination was associated with an 81 per cent reduction in hospitalisation risk in the fourth week when the results for both vaccines were combined.

Advice on how to minimise wasted doses of vaccine, including having a reserve list of priority and high-risk patients, has been provided to Health Boards.