Scotland to hang on to its stockpile of flu jabs

SCOTLAND looks unlikely to hand over any spare winter flu vaccine supplies to England, where shortages have left many people unable to receive the jab.

The Scottish Government admitted last night that it had a stockpile of 40,000 jabs - but 32,000 of these would shortly be sent to health boards and the rest kept as an emergency supply.

The Department of Health in England has been forced to look to suppliers across Europe in its hunt for spare vaccines.

But the Scottish Government said no formal approach had been made by the health department asking for help from Scotland, although officials had discussed vaccine supplies.

A spokeswoman said: "We would always consider helping England in any way appropriate, while our priority has to be public health in Scotland, which is what we have planned for.

"Discussions have certainly taken place between officials to discuss the number of vaccines available across the UK, however no formal approach for assistance has been made by the Department of Health.

"Scotland has a contingency stockpile of around 40,000 doses, 32,000 of which are due to be distributed to Scottish health boards early next week.

"The remaining 8,000 will be retained by the Scottish Government for resilience purposes and to ensure that we can deal with any localised outbreak where it may be needed."

The Scottish Government said the 32,000 doses to be sent to boards were just to make sure supplies were available locally in case of increasing demand, rather than because of shortages being experienced. Ministers have said there are no issues with supplies at GP surgeries in Scotland at the moment.

In England, stocks of last year's swine flu jab are to be used to plug shortages in this year's vaccination programme.