Covid-19 Update

Afzal Khan Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

Mrs Bunny England is certainly going to get her jab now. I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for raising her case. I will get straight on to the CCG, which, as he says, is excellent. Of course, we have roving teams right across the country going to people who are housebound. It is very important that we reach all with that offer, and we are on track to ensure that everybody can have the offer of a vaccination by 15 February. I appreciate that somebody in their 90s will have been waiting for that call for a couple of weeks now, but we are making good progress and I will make sure that Mrs England gets her jab.

[Afzal Khan (Manchester, Gorton) (Lab) [V]]

Last week I visited a number of new pharmacy-led vaccination centres set up in my constituency. It was incredible to see the tireless hard work of staff and volunteers. These vaccination centres are struggling to navigate the confusion caused by the two online booking systems. They are seeing patients being sent to centres much further away, rather than staying local, and patients aged over 70 who cannot get an appointment as the national booking system is not updated in line with the Government guidance. Will the Secretary of State look into these issues with some urgency?

[Matt Hancock]

First, may I pay tribute to the hon. Gentleman’s leadership in his local area and community in demonstrating how important it is to get the jab, as so many colleagues across the House are doing? It is wonderful that we have total unanimity in this House on the importance of the vaccination programme, and the work that people are doing—on all sides of the House and from all backgrounds—to promote the vaccination effort really makes me very proud; it is humbling.

Of course I will look into the specific issue that the hon. Gentleman raises. I will ask the Minister for vaccine deployment, the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my hon. Friend the Member for Stratford-on-Avon (Nadhim Zahawi), to call him to talk specifically about it. There are two different routes through which people can get a jab: the mass vaccination centres or GPs. People are often invited to both, and that is okay. They can take one or the other, whichever is most convenient. If they get an invitation to a vaccination centre that is a bit of a distance away and want to wait for a closer one, they can do so. That closer invitation from the local GPs will come. A lot of people appreciate the opportunity essentially to go as soon as possible, which is why we have two different routes. I understand the importance of making that clear to everybody and ensuring that they are as deconflicted as possible. I hope that we can make sure that this process goes as smoothly as possible, and that the hon. Gentleman and my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary can make that work.