Exclusive: Retired Gurkhas complain of missing out on coronavirus vaccinations

Retired Gurkhas have complained of being ignored by the NHS for Covid-19 vaccinations, despite hundreds of doses apparently going spare near their homes.

More than 400 ex-Gurkhas living in the Greenwich area of London are among pensioners yet to be invited amid questions over the speed of the NHS booking system, The Telegraph can disclose.

Meanwhile, ministers launched an urgent review after the Milly Dowler killer Levi Bellfield was among high security prisoners told they would be invited for vaccines in the coming weeks.

Rajen Kandel, group director of the NHS Woolwich Late Night Pharmacy, said he had enough Oxford vaccine doses “sitting in the fridge” to jab nearly 400 people every day, but only 50 people were being booked in by the NHS daily.

He added that the over-70s overlooked for jabs included hundreds of ex-Gurkhas, many of whom moved to the area after winning the right to settle in the UK in 2009.

“We are here waiting for people but the bookings are not coming through,” Mr Kandel told The Telegraph.

“We have more than a thousand doses of the Oxford vaccine but hardly anyone to vaccinate. The vaccine is sitting in the fridge. Something is clearly going wrong between the central NHS and GPs because these letters are not going out quickly enough. Lots of the people missing out are ex-Gurkhas, and that’s wrong.”

Mr Kandel, whose pharmacy is among 15 in London offering jabs, said his staff had tried to use the NHS booking website to arrange jabs for people aged over 70 including ex-Gurkhas, only to be told they were ineligible.

Prem Jung Shahi, vice president of the Greenwich Gurkha Ex-Servicemen Association, urged the NHS to invite his members to take up the hundreds of jabs going spare.

“It is difficult for us because we know there are vaccines available nearby but the NHS are not sending us the letters,” he told The Telegraph. “The NHS seems to be moving very slowly.”

A spokesperson for the NHS in London said: “Like other people aged 70 and over in London, retired members of the Brigade of Gurkhas are being invited to book an appointment, following the Government confirming last week that people in this age group should now be contacted.

“People can then choose whether they get vaccinated at a community pharmacy, one of the 50 large scale sites or at their local GP led service.”

Meanwhile, it was reported that Levi Bellfield has been offered the coronavirus jab at his high-security prison. Bellfield, 52, who was found guilty of the murder of 13-year-old Milly in 2011, was among inmates at Frankland Prison, in County Durham, said to have received a letter saying he will be vaccinated in the coming weeks, The Sun reported.

Ministers are understood to have ordered an urgent review into the letter, which was sent by Spectrum Healthcare, a firm contracted to provide services to prisons.

A source at the Ministry of Justice said: “The letter does not constitute an offer of a vaccine and there is no prioritisation for prisoners, nor will there ever be.”

It came as headteachers urged the Government to move teachers up the priority list for vaccines.

Under an emergency scheme proposed by the Headteachers’ Association, 150 independent schools and state academies would become vaccination hubs with medically trained staff administering jabs to school workers for 16 hours a day.