A top councillor has supported suggestions that problems answering calls at a GP surgery are due to staff being used as part of the Covid vaccine programme.

As reported last week, the Kent and Medway Clinical Commisioning Group (CCG) said workers at Thorndike Medical Centre in Rochester, were also being used for jabs.

A consequence of this was that patients were struggling to get through to the practice, with some saying they’d called “hundreds” of times.

Labour’s health spokesman Cllr Teresa Murray says a separate vaccine workforce should have been trained to run the jab clinics.

Instead, medical workers were carrying out the massive task of administering injections alongside their day-to-day normal jobs.

She has been working as a volunteer on the programme which is being led by the Thorndike at surgeries and health centres in Rochester and Lordswood.

She told how she’s seen first-hand the impact the immunisation drive has had on staff.

She said: “The vaccine programme is bleeding primary care dry. It is leaving staff tired and exhausted.

“They have had to do the ordering, get the technology up-and-running and work 14-hour days. And they are doing a second job as well.”

Cllr Murray said the Covid-19 crisis had exacerbated the effects on “an already fragile and broken system”.

She added: “The vaccine programme is wasting the time of trained medical workers which is leading to a huge backlog of other cases.

“People will be turning up at hospital in a worst state because they have been unable to get an appointment to see their doctor.”

Meanwhile, Rochester and Strood MP Kelly Tolhurst has demanded answers from the CCG, which oversees the running of GP practices. She says the CCG “should be waving a big stick at surgeries not delivering goods”.

The Medway Messenger, KentOnline's sister paper, has previously reported how patients, unable to get through to reception at the Longley Road clinic, have resorted to going to A&E at Medway Maritime Hospital. for non-serious ailments.

Independent health regulator the Care Quality Commission has confirmed it has been contacted.

Its head of inspection for primary medical services, Neil Cox, said: “We are aware patients have had some issues. We are regularly monitoring all registered healthcare providers in the area and carrying out inspections where needed.”

Speaking previously, Dr Navin Kumta, the CCG’s clinical chairman, said the vaccine rollout had put pressure on services.

He said: “We understand people are experiencing difficulties accessing their GP surgery, and the frustration that causes.

“We are working hard to make sure we can continue to give the best service possible.”

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