Mike Penning (Hemel Hempstead) (Con): May I tell the Secretary of State that the excellent GPs in my constituency will have heard with dismay her blaming them for the incompetence of her Department? When can she guarantee that the rationing will stop—by January, February or at the end of the winter, when our people have already suffered?
Ms Hewitt: This is not a question of blaming the GPs or anybody else. Since winter flu vaccination started, it has been the responsibility of individual GPs to order what they believe they need for their practices, taking into account the Department's advice on the risk groups for whom immunisation is a priority. As I have said several times, the number of doses—14 million—available this year is significantly higher than in previous years and should have been more than adequate for not only 100 per cent. take-up in the at-risk groups, which we have never achieved, but for others, including health care workers, for whom immunisation is often desirable. |
