BMA: vaccination distribution in UK is a "shambles"

The UK's main union for doctors has warned that a lack of "transparency" from the government on when coronavirus vaccines will be delivered is causing major scheduling problems for the inoculation scheme.The Representative Body Chair of the British Medical Association, Helena McKeown, said Sunday that many doctors' practices still don't know when the vaccines will arrive and when they can schedule vaccinations for their patients.

"We have suffered a shambles of vaccines being promised, (then) cancelled", McKeown told Britain's Sky News.She urged Health Secretary Matt Hancock to share the information so doctors and nurses can be trained and deployed to administer the vaccine."We are not being treated as partners and we can help if we are treated as partners," she added.

The comments come as the UK on Saturday registered a record 57,725 daily coronavirus cases.Government figures show the UK has recorded five straight daily highs - all above 50,000 and nearly double the levels of two weeks ago.With many British hospitals at or near capacity, there are growing concerns over how the already stretched National Health Service will cope with an expected rise in people seeking treatment after getting infected over the holidays. Field hospitals are getting outfitted again to take in patients.

On the inoculations front, Britain began vaccinating people over 80 and health care workers on Dec. 8 with the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine. Last week, the government approved another vaccine made by Oxford University and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca that is cheaper and easier to use.

The U.K. plans to ramp up vaccinations on Monday using 530,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and has set a goal of vaccinating 2 million people a week as soon as possible. Britain has seen 74,682 virus-related deaths in the pandemic, the second-highest total in Europe after Italy.

(Image Credit: AP)