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A councillor has voiced his frustration that rural villages are being left behind in the race to receive a Covid-19 vaccine.
To date, there has been a general lack of roll-out - even to the over 80s - in villages such as Staplehurst, Goudhurst, Lamberhurst, Hawkhurst, Sandhurst or the town of Cranbrook.
The NHS begun its programme of vaccination on December 8 last year, but so far it has only had the Pfizer vaccine to distribute.
That has to be transported and stored under extremely low temperatures and handled very carefully.
Cllr Godfrey Bland (Con) who lives in Sandhurst and represents Sandhurst and Hawkhurst on Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, said: "We in the rural areas are used to being at the back of the queue - we are at the back of the queue for broadband speeds, the back of the queue for bus services, but when it comes to being at the back of the queue for a potential life-saving vaccination, it gets a bit frustrating."
Cllr Bland said his postbag had been full of concerns raised by his constituents, including relatives of highly vulnerable residents at the Bowles Lodge care home in Hawkhurst.
He said: "I understand that the smaller rural surgeries do not have the facilities to cope with the Pfizer vaccine, but the new Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is now becoming available and that can be kept in the fridge and is no more difficult to administer that the flu jab."
Cllr Bland said: "I've been trying to find out when our local surgeries will get supplies of that, but trying to get an answer from the NHS is like fighting jelly."
The NHS has grouped GP surgeries into hubs of at least 50,000 patients to administer the vaccine.
On Tuesday this week, there were centres distributing the vaccine in Loose, in Maidstone, in Harrietsham, in Tunbridge Wells and at Maidstone Hospital, covering patients from a total of 22 GP surgeries, but none in the Weald.
The NHS Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group said: "We recognise that people are keen to understand when new sites will open and when we will have full coverage.
"The logistics of confirming new sites is complex and plans can change at short notice.
"We are therefore only able to confirm locations once they have received vaccine and all the other equipment and supplies needed to start vaccinating.
"Decisions about when individual vaccination services are opening are a combination of a nationally set approach and local readiness against essential criteria."
But on an optimistic note, the CCG promised: "In January, more vaccination services will open in Ashford, Canterbury, Dover, Folkestone, Medway, Sevenoaks, Tonbridge, Dartford, Gravesend, Swanley and Sittingbourne."
Cllr Bland said: "Hawkhurst and Sandhurst are in a hub with Cranbrook and Lamberhurst. I've been speaking to GP practices there and so far none has been given any indication of when they will receive the Oxford vaccine.
"It sometimes feels like we are in the Bermuda Triangle here, where things disappear without trace."
Rosie Broadbent is the chairman of the Sandhurst Friendship Club for the over-60s. She said: "None of our members who are over 80 has had any notification as to a date for a vaccination.
"I appreciate that some of our rural GP practices have old and, in some cases, ‘past their sell-by date’ buildings and facilities, but the Weald Sports Centre in Cranbrook, owned by Tunbridge Wells Borough Council and with good parking, is standing empty.
"It has a large sports hall which would make an excellent vaccination centre - it just needs a bit of imaginative organization."
She said: "Nobody seems to have any sense of urgency and there seems to be nobody co-ordinating this exercise.
"In the meantime, not a single care home resident at Bowles Lodge and Hawkhurst House or at Hartley House in Cranbrook has had a vaccination."
Helen Grant, MP for Maidstone and the Weald, said: "I am aware of some concerns in the Weald about the speed of the roll out and the lack of information available about the process.
"I will therefore this week be joining Greg Clark MP to write to Dr Justin Charlesworth, the clinical director of the Weald Primary Care Network, to ask him to confirm his plans for delivering the vaccine to those on the priority list and to offer our assistance with accessing any additional resources he requires."
