Sunderland council leader 'frustrated' at lack of answers over how vaccine roll out or mass testing will work

Sunderland’s council leader has said the region’s leaders are desperate for information on how they can help roll out the vaccination programme.
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But while the development has been celebrated as an “early Christmas present” by Sunderland City Council leader Councillor Graeme Miller, he has concerns about the lack of information from Government as it looks to support the NHS’s clinical commissioning groups, hospitals and GPs deliver the vaccine.

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Inside the Commercial Road Local Covid-19 Test Site. From Sunderland City Council Cllr Graeme Miller and Toby Rostron Maher, Sodexo Regional Lead.Inside the Commercial Road Local Covid-19 Test Site. From Sunderland City Council Cllr Graeme Miller and Toby Rostron Maher, Sodexo Regional Lead.
Inside the Commercial Road Local Covid-19 Test Site. From Sunderland City Council Cllr Graeme Miller and Toby Rostron Maher, Sodexo Regional Lead.
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He says leaders across Tyne and Wear and Northumberland, known as the LA7, make regular contact with the government over how they can help end the pandemic, but few answers have been given.

Coun Miller said a request to open a testing site at Washington to help roll out the mass testing Health Secretary Matt Hancock promised last month had been turned down.

The council leader said that no guidance had been given on how the North East could deliver mass testing across an area with a population of 2.2 million and said that the much-praised mass testing scheme in Liverpool involved 2,000 members of the British Army which won’t be an option across the entire UK.

In the meantime, the LA7 has pledged to help Newcastle Hospitals Trust as it takes the lead of the region’s vaccination project, with an acknowledgement it will be a “mammoth task”.

Coun Graeme Miller, leader of Sunderland City Council, has said he is frustrated with the lack of support from the Government as it seeks information about how the Covid vaccination programme and mass testing project will be run.Coun Graeme Miller, leader of Sunderland City Council, has said he is frustrated with the lack of support from the Government as it seeks information about how the Covid vaccination programme and mass testing project will be run.
Coun Graeme Miller, leader of Sunderland City Council, has said he is frustrated with the lack of support from the Government as it seeks information about how the Covid vaccination programme and mass testing project will be run.
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Coun Miller said: “It is very frustrating to be talking to the Government - and nobody is playing politics with this – it’s just the LA7 trying to work with them, with our chief executives, director of public health talking to civil servants and the leaders talking to ministers.

"We’re having a lot of conversations, but we’re getting very little back.

"The problem is they get the headlines, but then there is no solution or detail when we say ‘Right, how is Sunderland going to get mass testing?’

An image shared by BioNTech of a patient being given a dose of a coronavirus vaccine. Elderly people in care homes and their carers are top of the list to receive a Covid-19 vaccine after the UK became the first country in the world to approve a jab from Pfizer and BioNTech.An image shared by BioNTech of a patient being given a dose of a coronavirus vaccine. Elderly people in care homes and their carers are top of the list to receive a Covid-19 vaccine after the UK became the first country in the world to approve a jab from Pfizer and BioNTech.
An image shared by BioNTech of a patient being given a dose of a coronavirus vaccine. Elderly people in care homes and their carers are top of the list to receive a Covid-19 vaccine after the UK became the first country in the world to approve a jab from Pfizer and BioNTech.

"What we are doing is being the grown up in the room and we will still continue to talk to Government as the North East comes together and has those conversations.”

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The Department for Health and Social Care has been contacted for comment.

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