GPs say they were given 'no notice' of booster drive which will 'break general practice'

GPs say they were given “no notice” of the government plan to accelerate its coronavirus booster programme.

On Sunday, Boris Johnson announced that COVID-19 booster jabs would be made available to all adults, with a target of boosting everyone eligible before the new year.

The government aims to give boosters to almost one million people per day in an effort to halt the spread of the Omicron variant.

Johnson confirmed on Monday that at least one person had died with the variant in the UK, as health secretary Sajid Javid said it is spreading at a "phenomenal" rate.

Watch: Long lines for boosters as UK rollout ramped up

Read more: Boris Johnson and NHS make conflicting promises over booster rollout

GPs claim they were left out of the loop of the plans and only informed with hours to spare.

A letter sent to GPs by England’s medical chiefs warned of a “much larger” Omicron wave of infections that will strike in “two to three weeks”.

GPs in Greater Manchester said they will face a tough task to give out boosters during the NHS’s most difficult time of the year.

In a letter from the Royal College of General Practitioners sent out to doctors, Professor Martin Marshall, RCGP chair, and Professor Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England, warned of the Omicron spread among young adults.

They wrote: “The wave will be much larger in two to three weeks, and if it runs through an unboosted population the subsequent avoidable impact on the NHS, and almost certainly on severe disease and mortality will be significant.

“The NHS will then be hit with a large wave of patients at the worst time of the year, and at a point it is likely many colleagues will be ill, isolating or caring for family members due to the size of the wave.”

“We are taking the unusual step of jointly writing to you today to thank you and your practice teams for your immense contribution to the COVID vaccine programme so far – and to appeal for your help yet again in delivering the booster jab to as many people as possible over the next few weeks.

"Even at this very busy point in the year this is now the number one priority for the NHS and we wanted to lay out why GPs are essential to this.”

However, Dr Faisal Bhutta, a GP in Hyde, Greater Manchester, said it was a “nearly impossible ask”.

He told the Manchester Evening News: “It is going to break general practice.

"It is the busiest time of year for GP surgeries anyway, I'm not sure how we're going to do this. We simply don't have the staff.

"This came out of nowhere. We will have to cancel all leave for staff from now until 31 December."

Dr Helen Wall, who is in charge of the vaccine rollout in Bolton, tweeted: “All Bolton COVID vaccine sites will be working to step up capacity further and see 18+ from tomorrow, but please bear with us this is a mammoth ask with 12 hours notice.”

"I'm understandably concerned but positive because we have great teams in Bolton and I know we can do this," she later told the Manchester Evening News.

The government suffered a blow on Monday when it was forced to suspend its home COVID-19 tests ordering service because of a surge in demand. The NHS booking site for booster jabs also crashed.

Watch: Boris Johnson announces new booster target in face of Omicron 'tidal wave'