Nicola Sturgeon apologises after Scots 'wrongly' refused Covid booster jabs

Nicola Sturgeon has apologised to Scots seeking booster jabs who were "wrongly" turned away from vaccination clinics, after the Scottish government failed to give health boards the legal authorisation needed to speed up the rollout.

The First Minister said a "very small number of people" had been affected due to a "glitch in the system", which prevented boards complying with an order to halve the wait for booster jabs to three months.

However, the "glitch" was caused by the Scottish government failing to issue a legal instruction, called a patient group direction, on the new policy - which was drawn up in response to the the omicron variant.

This was despite Ms Sturgeon, her Health Secretary and her national clinical director all urging Scots in their 40s and 50s to use an online portal to bring forward their booster jab appointments.

Hundreds of people who followed her order turned up to centres on Wednesday, only to be sent away by NHS workers who insisted they would still have to wait 24 weeks from their second jab to get their booster.

Douglas Ross, the Scottish Tory leader, on Thursday challenged Ms Sturgeon's assertion that the problem had been resolved after highlighting people on social media continuing to complain that they were being turned away.

He said Ms Sturgeon "is in denial about the problems her Government’s poor communications have caused, and about the need for mass vaccination centres to accelerate the pace of the vaccine rollout".

Although she insisted that anyone who was turned away could rebook their appointment, it was reported that some people could not do this - because the computer system had recorded them as having already received their booster.

The number of omicron cases in Scotland increased by three to 13 on Thursday. Although the first nine were linked to the same event, the Scottish Government said the 10th was not. This indicated "some degree of community transmission of this variant".

Sturgeon 'very sorry to anyone who was turned away'

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) this week recommended that the booster programme be dramatically widened to all adults, instead of only the over-40s.

Amid fears that the omicron variant is more transmissible and resistant to vaccines, the group also recommended that the minimum gap between the second dose and booster be halved from six to three months.

However, the dramatic increase in eligibility meant more than one million Scots were added to the waiting list for a booster, taking the total to around two million.

Ms Sturgeon accepted some people were "wrongly turned away from the clinics" after the advice changed, saying at First Minister's Questions: "I am very sorry to anyone who was turned away from a vaccine clinic.

"We have taken steps to ensure that that information has been cascaded down to vaccination clinics everywhere across Scotland."

But Mr Ross said only five health boards had implemented the updated JCVI guidance by Thursday morning. Another five planned to do so "soon", but four had not given any update.

He said: "This problem was avoidable if the Government put the proper protocols in place before making announcements. The lack of planning from the SNP Government has led to confusion, when the public really needed clarity.

“Even though there is a backlog of close to two million people waiting to get their jab, we still don’t have a detailed plan from the SNP Government about how they will speed up the booster jab rollout at this critical moment."