Praise for some but the grumble remains....

FIRST a thank you and a congratulation to the Pump House Surgery, Earls Colne for delivering the Covid-19 vaccine in well organised and pleasing manner. Well done to all including the volunteers.

But, second a bit of a grumble in effect on their behalf.

Information is power but it is also about co-operation. And withholding it can lead to unnecessary problems.

At no time in this crisis has anyone bothered to explain the real challenges facing the people charged with safely delivering the vaccine. Of course we all took as a model the 'flu vaccine, safely delivered by every surgery and pharmacy virtually.

Would it not have been sensible, Matt Hancock, our CCGs and co, to ensure we understood that this was not considered possible. At all.

What actually had to happen it appears is to take an entire surgery OUT of the front line of primary care and turn it into a vaccination centre.

And that clearly could not happen to every surgery. So here in mid Essex, where the foolish CCG failed to inform anyone of anything, the long and narrow Colne Valley and its environs posed a special problem.

Patient convenience would have set up at least two centres spaced along the 20-mile corridor from the Hedinghams , through Halstead and down to Wakes Colne.

But that would have meant two surgeries taken out of commission as primary care centres. The difficult decision, taken without so much as a word to the public, was to use only one - Earls Colne - even though this meant risky travel for a lot of people. What it did mean was, as I saw today, that a highly efficient and safe process could be instituted.

I for one have been appalled at the apparently laggard vaccine delivery progress in this part of Essex, Suffolk and other parts of the east. And I have made my feelings known. I would apologise but the failure to provide a decent level of public information is the cause and for that the CCG and others deserve a short sharp shock.

What also bothers me is that this Government during this crisis has spent an absolute fortune of our money on consultants. Could they not find any to advise on the PR aspects of this most critical public information process?