Are Covid-19 vaccinations a postcode lottery in Leeds? - YEP letters

A few days ago you highlighted the case of 100 year old Margaret Marshall still waiting for her vaccine (I hope she has now had it).

Sadly there are many more elderly residents still waiting for contact from their GPs.

Undoubtedly massive progress has been made in some PCNs (Primary Care Networks).

For example, the GPs in Cross Gates have done a fantastic job, almost completing their over 80s programme, visiting care homes and on the point of doing home visits for housebound people.

Another PCN is already vaccinating under 80s. Huge thanks to all the staff involved.

And yet there are so many people, well into their 90s, still waiting to hear; including my 97-year-old mum. How can that be? If this very elderly and vulnerable cohort of patients has not already been vaccinated - some five weeks into the programme - how many in those PCNs have actually been vaccinated?

And this, of course, resonates with the plea from reader Paul Hazelgrave that we need immediate real time vaccination numbers. I agree! Indeed I have made this request already with senior colleagues in the council.

We need to see at least weekly vaccination numbers for each PCN, including data on how much progress they are making against their targets in each of the priority groups as they work their way through the lists.

I am afraid it is time for Dr Richard Vautrey to see the situation through the lens of patients. Calls for patience are misplaced when there is clearly a very unfair and uneven roll out across the city and a total lack of transparency.

He would be better engaged in calling those responsible for the allocation of vaccines to account, thereby demonstrating that he is on the side of patients.

At the moment we seem to be living in a postcode lottery of who gets the vaccine and who does not!