Last week, Munira asked the Government how many individuals are not registered with a GP in the UK, to which they had no answer. Today in the Chamber, Munira made note of how difficult it would be to deliver a vaccination scheme through GPs if a number of people are not registered.
For the vaccination scheme to be successful, it is imperative that everyone who is at risk is vaccinated. In his response, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock MP, recognised this.
Munira said:
“I asked the Secretary of State via a written question the estimate he and his department had made of the proportion of the population not registered with a GP, to which the answer was that no such estimate has been made.
I found this concerning, given how important GPs are to the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine, not least for vulnerable populations such as the homeless and those who move around a lot. So could the Secretary of State please explain what plans and provisions are being made to ensure the vaccine is available to those who aren’t registered with GPs?”
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock MP replied:
“The honourable lady raises an incredibly important point because it doesn’t matter whether you’re registered with anybody or not, you can still spread the disease and so the reason for the answer that she states is that we have to try to get the vaccination programme out to everybody, no matter their status, and there are people who don’t have any status in paperwork at all and we need to make sure that we support the rollout to them as well and we’re working with the communities department, who are best placed along with local authorities to do this and to make sure that the vaccination programme reaches anybody who fulfils the criteria set out by the joint committee on vaccinations and immunisation.”