A DOCTOR’S surgery in Milford Haven has said it is sorry to its patients after admitting it will have to postpone starting its coronavirus vaccine programme due to lack of product.

The first patients due to be vaccinated were the most vulnerable – care home residents and staff – and Milford Haven residents registered at their practice over 80 years of age.

But the practice has now been informed by Hywel Dda Health Board that it cannot order any stock of vaccines until later this month, so will not be able to start inoculations until February at the earliest.

It is because one of four batches of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, being used for the rollout in GP surgeries in Wales, has been delayed.

Speaking during a press conference on Friday, Wales’ First Minister Mark Drakeford said the country had had around 300,000 vaccine doses delivered to them.

Mr Drakeford explained that Wales has received roughly 50,000 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and 250,000 of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine – but the latter cannot be used in GP surgeries easily because it must be kept at very low temperatures until a few days before use.

On other words, Wales does not have enough of the right type of vaccine for GP surgeries.

On its official Facebook page, the Robert Street practice said: “[We] wish to apologize as we are experiencing a delay in being able to start vaccinating Tier 1 and 2 patients against COVID. These tiers include care home residents and their staff, NHS staff and all patients over 80.

“All our staff are keen and fully trained to be able to start this campaign as soon as possible but our practice has been informed by Hywel Dda Health Board that we are not able to order any stock of vaccines until hopefully week commencing 25th January.

“This is out of our control totally. We have been advised to not make definite plans until we have full confirmation so will inform those patients who currently qualify as soon as we are able to access stock.

“We hope to commence as soon as we can in February. We apologize for any inconvenience or worry this may cause.”

The Welsh Government said the delay in receiving sufficient Oxford/AstraZenica stocks would not impact their wider aim to vaccinate around 750,000 of the most vulnerable people by the middle of February.

A spokesman said: “We were recently notified that one of the four batches of the vaccine we had anticipated receiving this week will be delayed, and not available until the week commencing 25 January.

“This does not affect our overall expected delivery volumes or expectations for hitting the milestones set out in our Covid-19 Vaccination Strategy for Wales.”

According to the BBC, each batch contains about 26,000 doses.

It is understood that the delay will also impact on supplies in other parts of the UK in the coming week.

Welsh Government has also confirmed that it plans are in place to utilise all of Wales’ current supply of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine by early February.

A spokesman told The Pembrokeshire Herald: “By mid-February and subject to supply, our aim is to offer vaccinations to all care home residents and staff; frontline health and social care staff; those 70 years of age and over; and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals.”

Other GP surgeries in Wales have also apologised for delays.

However Stephen Crabb said that there was better news on vaccines following his weekly meeting with the Local Health Board.

He said: “Pembrokeshire will see a vaccination centre open next week.

“This is certainly encouraging – and it’s what I’ve been calling for since the start of the vaccination programme. It will focus on delivering the Pfizer vaccine to local health and social care staff for the time-being.”

But the Preseli Pembrokeshire MP did not seem to know about delivery delays.

Mr Crabb said: “A further delivery of AstraZeneca vaccine doses will see GP surgeries across Pembrokeshire delivering vaccinations next week to their vulnerable patients. I will continue to stay in touch with the LHB on a daily basis to monitor progress.

South Pembrokeshire’s Simon Hart MP said on his Facebook page on Saturday (Jan 16): “So far approximately 15,930 local residents have been vaccinated or about 4.1% of the population. Initially this has focussed on NHS and care staff who have contact with patients but has no moved into the first cohorts of more vulnerable people.

“As many people will know, the plan across the UK, is to vaccinate Cohorts 1-4 by the middle of February. These cohorts, people over 70 and the very vulnerable, account for 88% of all hospital admissions.

“Next week the health board will receive a further 15,000 Oxford Astra Zenica vaccinations, and 6,000 more Pfizer vaccinations.

“Crucially for residents in Pembrokeshire (where concerns have been raised about a lack of facilities and a slow start for the over 80’s) plans are advancing quickly for new vaccination centres in both the North and South of the County as well as in all GP surgeries.

“Our “strike-rate” in Wales is still a little behind the rest of the UK at 3,215/100k of population compared with 4,005/100k in England, but we are assured that provision of vaccines is evenly distributed throughout the whole UK.

“Its worth pointing out that this is a mammoth task and many thousands of people in the NHS, MoD and many other areas are doing a remarkable job and that the UK is currently third in the world in its vaccination programme.”

“As of lunchtime today, over 15,000 vaccination had taken place across the 3 counties in the LHB area – 4.1% of our population.

“This is positive although the proportion of over 80’s who have been vaccinated is considerably lower than in England. This is where we need to see progress now. Getting vaccines to the most vulnerable ensures more lives are saved.

“Our hospitals remain under pressure so it is still really important that we follow the guidance. But today’s update from the Health Board shows we are moving in the right direction.”