Teachers jumping Covid vaccine queue ahead of elderly and vulnerable, council warns

Principals in Rochdale warned staff are exploiting loophole in booking system, Colin Drury reports

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Teachers have been jumping the queue for the coronavirus vaccine by exploiting a loophole in the booking system, a council has warned.

School staff in Rochdale had used an internal NHS web link to get jab appointments ahead of priority groups, including care workers, the vulnerable and the elderly, according to Gail Hopper, director of children's services with the Greater Manchester town’s council.

In a leaked letter warning principals in the borough that the practice was taking place, she said: “For every vaccine given to someone outside the priority groups, the risk is increased of our most vulnerable residents being delayed in receiving it…

“The question that I would ask is how would any of us feel if, by one of our colleagues accessing a vaccination, our mother or father was denied.”

Explaining how the ruse occurred, she added: “A booking link sent to NHS employees to book a vaccination slot at one of the identified hospital sites has been inappropriately shared. This was not the intention when the non-transferable link was provided, and should not have happened."

In January, The Independent was able to use a similar link - run by appointment platform Swiftqueue - to book an appointment for a jab in Nottinghamshire after evidence came to light of such misuse.

But the new Rochdale letter – first published by the Manchester Mill news site – is the first time that a specific profession has been singled out as exploiting the loophole.

It comes amid ongoing calls for school staff to receive the inoculation over the next month.

Ministers have set a target for the first four priority groups, including everyone over the age of 70 and the extremely vulnerable, to be vaccinated by mid February. Groups five to nine, which includes all adults over 50 and those with underlying health conditions, are next in line.

But Labour argues that school workers should be fitted in during the February half-term on the basis that this will help to reduce disruption to children's education by reducing the number of staff having to self-isolate when schools reopen.

Supporting the call, former Prime Minister Tony Blair pointed out it would take only two days to inoculate the country’s 500,000 teachers.

But in her letter, Ms Hopper said that, while she agreed with the view, it “cannot be right that individuals use unauthorised routes when to do so denies others with entitlement”.

Asked about the incident at his weekly virtual press conference, Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, said: “If people go when it's not their time to go, they are jumping the queue, and they are potentially taking a slot away from someone in much greater need.”

The scandal follows after it emerged on Tuesday that identity checks were to be increased at Manchester's Etihad Stadium mass vaccination centre to calm concerns that people had been queue-jumping by pretending to be social care staff.