GPs attempting to administer Covid booster jabs to every adult by the new year say it is “a huge challenge”.

One leading doctor also expressed concern over news routine medical appointments may be cancelled to make way for vaccine slots.

The Prime Minister announced on Sunday that the target for giving every adult in England a booster jab has been brought forward by a month after the emergence of the Omicron variant, with cases now also reported in Kent.

Boris Johnson said Britain “must urgently reinforce our wall of vaccine protection” as he warned of a “tidal wave of Omicron” that could cause “very many deaths”.

Local vaccination centres are now racing to administer third doses to thousands of adults across the district in the next 15 days - with some of those bank holidays.

In Whitstable, about 10,000 over-18s are still in need of boosters.

But staff at the town’s GP-led vaccine site at Estuary View Medical Centre are already working seven-day weeks - jabbing patients at weekends on top of their weekday appointments - and GP John Ribchester says help is needed to help reach everyone by New Year’s Day.

So far, the site has administered the vast majority of booster jabs in the town.

The practice has managed to squeeze in four extra weekday vaccination clinics between now and January 3.

“But if we’re to achieve the Prime Minister’s target, the only way it’s going to happen is by mass vaccination centres or new pop-up centres doing the shortfall,” said Dr Ribchester.

“We’ll still be doing the majority, but more people do need to get involved.

“Because our staff haven’t yet worked out how to do an eight-day week.”

Health Secretary Sajid Javid this week warned some NHS appointments will have to be dropped in order to meet the government’s vaccination target.

But Dr Ribchester branded this “a huge concern for every GP”.

He explained: “You’re going to have to assess someone so carefully before you decide ‘yes, the problem you thought was urgent can wait two, possibly three weeks’.

“By the time you’ve done that assessment, you might as well have spent the same time seeing them. You can’t ignore symptoms and say ‘go away, we’re busy jabbing’.

“Somebody who’s got a bit of chest tightness - it might be a heart attack about to happen.

“You end up with a moderate mental health problem becoming an acute mental health problem, and sadly even suicide.

“You have to assess people very carefully.”

Jeremy Carter, clinical director of Herne Bay Primary Care Network (PCN), also branded the government’s new target “ambitious”, but says he is confident it will be met in the town despite “thousands” still needing boosters.

“It’s definitely going to be a huge ask,” he said.

“Workforce is clearly a huge challenge.

“Our staff aren’t immune to the [Omicron] wave. At what point do our staff get Covid or have to isolate?

“But we will step up, because that’s what we do.”

The PCN is more than doubling jabbing capacity between now and Christmas, but Dr Carter warns this will be at the expense of some non-urgent appointments.

“We’re going to be pulling out all the stops,” he said.

“The flipside is patients are going to have to understand that’s going to compromise something else in the system. It may be that some routine monitoring clinics get cancelled. But we are still open.

“If you’ve got urgent needs, if you’ve got symptoms that you think might be related to cancer, of course we’re still open.”

On Wednesday, days after the end-of-year target was announced, huge numbers of people could be seen queuing outside the vaccination centre at Newton Place Surgery in Faversham, which offers walk-in appointments. There were queues of 90 minutes, stretching back to Station Road.

Meanwhile, the hub in Vauxhall Road, Canterbury, has increased its capacity by 50% since Sunday to meet the new demand.

Site manager Susan Joyner said: “Four weeks ago we were vaccinating 500 patients daily, then 1,000 daily, and we are now vaccinating over 1,750 daily.”

An extra heated marquee was due to be delivered to the site yesterday (Wednesday).

Between now and December 23, the site is open for walk-ins between 9am and 4pm, except this weekend, when walk-in appointments will run from 8.30am to 5pm.

'Please get jabbed'

Booster vaccines are said to massively increase immunity against Covid - including the newly emerged Omicron Covid-19 variant.

Latest data suggests Omicron is extremely transmissible and will become the dominant variant in the UK imminently, with cases now doubling every two to three days.

Although the variant could be less virulent than the Delta strain, it is feared a drop-off in immunity from vaccines could lead to a substantial rise in hospitalisations.

Dr Ribchester urges people to take up the third jab, adding that it is primarily those in younger age groups who are resisting getting vaccines.

“Please do not get weary of having your vaccine,” he said.

“It is just so important. If you’d seen the folk that doctors and nurses see with severe illness, on ventilators, sadly some of them dying; if you’d see the horrendous anxiety in relatives, perhaps you wouldn’t feel so weary about having another vaccine.

“If you’re a youngster and you think ‘this won’t affect me too badly’, please think of your responsibility to everyone you’re in contact with and get jabbed.”

Dr Carter added that care home and house-bound patients “haven’t been forgotten”, and says they will be contacted in due course about booster jabs.

Everyone aged 18 and over is now eligible for a booster, as long as it has been three months since their second dose or 28 days since a positive Covid test.

Not all clinics are providing a walk-in service.

Check availability here.