Local NHS leaders are forcing GPs to throw away vaccines rather than give second doses, medics have revealed.
Doctors who are organising clinics at short notice and find they have several injections left are being warned that they cannot use them on staff or any patients who have already received their first jab.
While it is understood some are refusing to comply, others are said to be fearful that their supplies will be cancelled if they do not follow instructions.
Dr Robert Morley, the director of professional support at the Birmingham Local Medical Committee, described the instructions, which are being reported by doctors across the country, as “extremely counterproductive, nonsensical and ludicrous”.
He told The Telegraph: “This is ridiculous, bordering on the criminal, to actually be wasting vaccines when you have the worst global healthcare crisis for a century.”
Dr Morley said that because of the uncertainty of the supply chain GPs are finding it difficult to book the exact number of appointments for clinics. In some cases, patients booked in at short notice do not turn up. Where they have leftover doses, “the logical thing to do would be to use it as a second dose for healthcare workers, for example, who may be there in the building,” he said.