The letters, from Professor Stephen Powis, the NHS medical director, have seen family doctors deluged by calls as they were attempting to roll out Covid vaccines for millions of elderly people.
Many family doctors said they had no idea the letters being sent and only realised what had happened when their phone lines became jammed. One Kent practice said it had received 4,000 calls last Friday, blocking the system, after patients received the letter.
The latest figures show 28 per cent of people in the new cohort of people aged 50 to 64 without underlying health problems have now had the flu jab.
GPs said they were astonished to be expected to keep providing the vaccines when they had been told the Covid crisis was the priority. Dr Sam Everington, a GP in Tower Hamlets, London, said: “It is ridiculous. We are prioritising as best we can but we are short of doctors and nurses. There aren’t enough to do everything, and this kind of directive is not helpful at all.
“We need to…
— to www.telegraph.co.uk
