We have been inundated over the past week with requests from patients who believe they are in the wrong priority group for vaccination because of their medical condition, situation or occupation. 

We understand your frustrations, but the cohorts are determined centrally and not by us: we are told the information and use it to plan the order in which we will invite patients in. We understand that there are instances where there may genuine reasons why you feel you should be placed in a higher priority group, and that there have been messages in the media to contact us if this is the case. However, due to the sheer volume of requests we have been receiving, we are unfortunately unable to consider individual requests from patients to change the priority group they are in for vaccination. This is because it is taking up so much time, that we are unable to do other things, such as plan for future vaccine clinics. If you strongly believe that you have been assigned to the wrong cohort you are able to contact the JCVI or the Department of Health and directly raise the issue with them.

Please bear in mind that we have no control over how many vaccines we are sent and when, and so we are restricted on how fast we can work through the Groups in accordance with how much stock we have. We are working as fast as we possibly can and are working off the Priority lists as set by central NHS/the government.

We are on target to vaccinate all patients according to their priority groups in line with the government's proposed schedule, so please be assured that you will be invited in due course, regardless.

Many thanks for your patience and understanding as we undertake this huge task.

Published: Feb 23, 2021