Claims of 'thrown out' Covid vaccine doses attributed to 'teething challenges'

A vaccinator told the paper they were instructed to discard of unused doses if they reached the end of their shift with some still in their vial. 

They said this was a "disgrace" and that colleagues were "disgusted with what we were told".

The retired practice nurse said: "As the vials are each vaccinators' own responsibility, if they come to the end of their shift with doses left in their vial it is thrown out as it cannot be passed to a colleague to use the remaining dosage."

Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary Donald Cameron said people would be "aghast at NHS medical staff being ordered to bin precious vaccine doses".

NHS Lothian, which is in charge of the Covid vaccination centre at the EICC, said ensuring patient safety and minimising waste are its main priorities. 

Pat Wynne, director of nursing for primary and community care, said: "Staff raised concerns that there was still potential for waste so we have introduced a buddy system which allows staff to work in pairs and both to be accountable for their supply of vaccine. 

"It also allows shifts to finish on time and provides greater flexibility for staff to take breaks.

"We have also reinforced the messages in our daily safety briefings at all of our sites to make sure that staff know they are not expected to discard any vaccine unnecessarily. 

"We will continue to review the way we work and listen to our staff in the centres.

"On Monday, the first day that the EICC mass vaccination centre was in use, 3.7% of vaccines were discarded.

"Following the introduction of these changes, yesterday the figure was 0.07%. Vaccines may be discarded for a range of reasons including breakage."

Jason Leitch, Scotland's national clinical director, was asked about the issue during the Scottish Government's coronavirus briefing, and whether it was a cause for concern.

He said there is no "systematic challenge with wastage across the whole country". 

He added: "We're not hearing of stories of a lot of vaccine being wasted, in fact quite the opposite. 

"We're hearing stories of health and social care workers going the extra mile to use as much vaccine as they possibly can."

He said there was "an issue raised internally at the EICC", which was "dealt with very appropriately" by changing the procedures, resulting in less wastage. 

He added: "And that's exactly the kind of learning you would expect to happen inside any system of this size. 

"That conference centre for this purpose, remember, only opened four or five days ago, so there will of course be teething challenges as you move the vaccine around the units."

Deputy First Minister John Swinney said the Government is "focusing very closely on the delivery of the vaccination programme and maximising the use of the vaccine that's available to us". 

He said: "In the plans that we set out, we put in an assumption that there would be a level of wastage in the vaccination programme, as there would be in any mass vaccination programme. 

"We obviously want to keep that to a minimum, but we put in an assumption about that. 

"And the assumption that was included in the programme was that 5 per cent of the vaccine was likely to be wasted in the programme's rollout."

He said the "really encourage news is the actual data indicates that it's no more than 2% of vaccination that is being wasted" through such things as spillages and breakages. 

Mr Swinney said: "So we're actually successfully outperforming the assumption that was made in the vaccination programme, but obviously taking every step to minimise any particular examples where we can improve the efficiency and efficacy of the programme, and those steps have been taken at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre vaccination centre."

Scottish Labour interim leader Jackie Baillie said: "The vaccine is the key route out of this pandemic – the vaccinators are doing their best – but being told to discard doses is nothing short of a disgrace."