One in seven vaccines appointments has gone to waste in Scotland in the first five months of the Covid-19 vaccine rollout.
New figures, obtained by The Scotsman, showed that 360,000 vaccines went to waste from December to May with one in seven no-shows at appointments across the country.
READ MORE: Coronavirus Scotland: When - and how - will physical distancing end in the NHS?
The figures from eight boards, including those covering the metropolitan areas of Glasgow and Edinburgh, are also likely to underestimate with 6 boards unable to provide figures and others only partially reporting.
The figures showed that patients had failed to attend 360,760 of the 2,639,337 appointments booked. There were 31,155 no-shows for second jabs.
Greater Glasgow saw 20.5 per cent of appointments going to waste – more than one in five.
Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary Annie Wells said the high rate of people not turning up for their appointments was “concerning” saying: "It is welcome that the success of the vaccination scheme has meant Scotland has eased further restrictions this week.
“However, we know that the SNP are still on course to fall well short of their own vaccination targets, including fully vaccinating all adults by September 12.”
Scottish Labour’s health and Covid recovery spokesperson Jackie Baillie said: "
“Earlier in the programme we saw widespread reports of letters being sent to old addresses and difficulty rearranging appointments – all of which can lead to missed appointments.
“The SNP must fix these basic problems and ensure it is as easy as possible for everyone to get vaccinated at a time and place that suits them. We cannot afford to take our eye off the ball during this all-important final stretch.”
READ MORE: Covid Scotland: 1,542 new cases and eight further deaths confirmed
A Scottish Government spokesperson told The Scotsman: “Scotland’s vaccination programme is an overwhelming success and is one of the fastest vaccination programmes anywhere in the world. As of August 12, we have vaccinated 90 per cent of adults aged 18 and over with first doses and 76 per cent with second doses.
“While a small number of individuals may choose not to attend their scheduled appointment, some people may be unable to attend at a set time and will be vaccinated at a later date.
“We are working to make it as simple as possible for people, particularly those in younger age groups, to get their vaccines. We are increasing the options available for how and when people choose to be vaccinated, including drop-in mobile centres, which have visited a range of sites such as football grounds, parks, workplaces and shopping centres.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel