Sinn Fein claim of vaccination ‘postcode lottery’ rejected

Concerns were raised about the availability of vaccines on a regional basis by the West Tyrone MP Orfhlaith Begley, who wrote to the Health Minister Robin Swann to highlight the issue.

The Sinn Fein MP said: “The shortage of Covid-19 vaccines is delaying the ability of GP surgeries to meet the timetable for the vaccination programme and will ultimately delay our society progressing beyond the pandemic.

“I have written to Health Minister Robin Swann highlighting supply disparities and requested that he takes urgent steps to rectify the postcode lottery situation which has developed.

“The vaccination programme must be underpinned by fairness and equality, and all citizens must have access to the vaccine regardless of where you live.”

Asked to respond, a spokesperson for the Department of Health said: “We can assure the public there is no postcode lottery when it comes to the vaccine. The vaccine is distributed evenly throughout Northern Ireland as supply permits.

“All GP practices in Northern Ireland were provided with at least 100 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to enable them to vaccinate patients aged 80 and over. AstraZeneca comes in packs of 100 doses which cannot be broken down into smaller amounts.

“The larger practices received up to 300 doses. For some practices, 100 doses may have been enough to cover all patients aged 80 years or over, while for other practices the allocation may not been enough to cover all their patients aged 80 years or over.”