Health Secretary says 'permanent fix' to solve Fife vaccine queues to be ready by end of week
Jeane Freeman was speaking in Parliament after people had to queue outside a number of centres in the Kingdom yesterday
Last updated 9th Feb 2021
The Health Secretary says a "permanent fix" to solve software issues which led to long queues outside a number of vaccination centres in Fife yesterday will be in place by the end of this week.
Patients were overbooked at five facilities, including Rothes Halls in Glenrothes. It's understood this was due an issue with the transfer of data from a local bookings system to a national portal.
"There will be glitches and there will be problems. We need to fix those, apologies for them and ensure they don't happen again," said the Health Secretary.
"What we must not do is use those problems to undermine the success of the entire program, which right now is proving itself."
Scottish Lib Dem Leader Will Rennie described the issue as "wholly unacceptable."
"People over the age of 70, many who haven't been out of their house for months were left waiting in sub zero conditions for hours on end," he said.
"A lady collapsed in Lochgelly, another who was just out of hospital with breast cancer was told to wait for two and a half hours."
Long queues also arose outside Dundee's Caird Hall yesterday, with NHS Tayside putting this down to a shortage of vaccinators due to the snow.
The Health Secretary confirmed 5,006 people were vaccinated in Fife yesterday, compared to to 61,299 to across Scotland.
MS Freeman added 99.97% of people in care homes have now been vaccinated across country, while 96% of over 80s have received the jag and 75% of 75-79 in community