25 November 2005
Mike Penning condemns Health Secretary for trying to blame GPs for flu vaccine supply fiasco.
During a heated exchange on the floor of the House of Commons on Tuesday, Mike Penning MP condemned Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, for trying to blame our hardworking GPs for the inadequate supplies of the winter flu vaccine.
He said:
“May I tell the Secretary of State that the excellent GPs in my constituency will have heard with dismay her blaming them for the incompetence of her Department? When can she guarantee that the rationing will stop—by January, February or at the end of the winter, when our people have already suffered? “
At least 5 local surgeries have now run out of vaccine and this is at a time when we are told we are facing one of our coldest winters in years. Coupled with a possible outbreak of avian flu and threats of fuel shortages it seems ridiculous that the Government didn’t predict that the most needy in Dacorum would seek to protect themselves.
A number of factors have contributed to the shortages, not least the fact that the Government has increased the number of people on the at-risk list without increasing the amount of vaccine. This was further exacerbated when the Government – through sheer incompetence - compared the number of people at-risk in England with the amount of vaccine available in the UK as a whole.
In a move likely to further infuriate GPs, the Government has implied that our GPs have been giving flu-jabs to the “worried well” rather than at-risk groups. In a letter sent to GPs on 22nd November, Dr David Salisbury, Head of Immunisation at Department of Health said “There is some concern that the vaccine may have been used on the ‘worried well’ rather than the pre-agreed risk groups and that this has contributed to the shortfall.”
During a heated exchange on the floor of the House of Commons on Tuesday, Mike Penning MP condemned Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, for trying to blame our hardworking GPs for the inadequate supplies of the winter flu vaccine.
He said:
“May I tell the Secretary of State that the excellent GPs in my constituency will have heard with dismay her blaming them for the incompetence of her Department? When can she guarantee that the rationing will stop—by January, February or at the end of the winter, when our people have already suffered? “
At least 5 local surgeries have now run out of vaccine and this is at a time when we are told we are facing one of our coldest winters in years. Coupled with a possible outbreak of avian flu and threats of fuel shortages it seems ridiculous that the Government didn’t predict that the most needy in Dacorum would seek to protect themselves.
A number of factors have contributed to the shortages, not least the fact that the Government has increased the number of people on the at-risk list without increasing the amount of vaccine. This was further exacerbated when the Government – through sheer incompetence - compared the number of people at-risk in England with the amount of vaccine available in the UK as a whole.
In a move likely to further infuriate GPs, the Government has implied that our GPs have been giving flu-jabs to the “worried well” rather than at-risk groups. In a letter sent to GPs on 22nd November, Dr David Salisbury, Head of Immunisation at Department of Health said “There is some concern that the vaccine may have been used on the ‘worried well’ rather than the pre-agreed risk groups and that this has contributed to the shortfall.”
