Scottish GP casts doubt on Covid jab timeframe for the elderly
It's after the First Minister said yesterday they hope all over 80's will receive the vaccine within the next four weeks.
A Scottish GP's warning the government's timescales for the over eighties to be vaccinated may be unrealistic.
On Thursday, Nicola Sturgeon announced at the daily briefing they're hoping everyone in that age group will receive their first covid vaccination within the next four weeks.
Dr Andy McIntosh, who's a GP in the Borders and the co-chair of GP Survival Scotland said that may not be possible.
Dr McIntosh said: "I think it's probably optimistic to put it politely, and I would very much hope that they meet the target that the First Minister is proposing - that would be fantastic if we can.
"But realistically I don't see how that's achievable in that timeframe basically because of either lack of vaccine, lack of vaccinators, lack of capacity to actually do the vaccines.
"There's a large number of surgeries where they really have no idea when they are going to get their vaccine supplies let alone how many vaccines they're going to get.
"So as you would imagine, you cannot organise any sort of vaccination programme or clinic or anything else without knowing when your supplies are going to be there and how much you're going to have.
"There are areas where it's not going to get off the ground certainly within the target area that the First Minister's making.
"I absolutely support optimism - optimism is vital at this time, but I think realistically, the target is probably unattainable certainly on a national basis from what I can see."
It was revealed more than 113,000 people in Scotland have received their first dose of coronavirus vaccination by the end of last week (January 1 2021).
Hear all the latest news from across Tayside, Perthshire and Angus on Tay FM. Listen on FM, via our Rayo app, DAB, or smart speaker.