GPs will be given bonuses to take part in the booster rollout, health chiefs have announced, as they urge the public to volunteer to speed up the effort.
On Tuesday night, Boris Johnson vowed to “throw everything” at the programme, with all eligible adults over 18 to be offered a third jab by the end of January.
The Prime Minister promised “another great British vaccination effort” to tackle the omicron variant, with temporary centres “popping up like Christmas trees” to speed up the programme.
Health chiefs will deploy the Army, recruit 10,000 paid vaccinators and have urged the public to join a “jabs army” of volunteers to expand the mass effort.
They said the rates paid to GPs and pharmacists to administer jabs would be increased – with premiums for those prepared to work on Sundays. Until now, they have been paid £12.58 for every jab given.
Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England, told a Downing Street press conference that from now on GPs and pharmacists could expect £15 per dose, with £20 for jabs given on Sundays and a £30 premium for visits to the housebound.
It came after the chairman of the British Medical Association’s GP committee said family doctors did not have time to administer vaccines on top of routine work.
Dr Farah Jameel had said doctors should be released from other NHS contractual obligations, such as carrying out health checks, to get “all hands on deck” for the rollout.
The plans aim to increase the number of jabs administered from 2.5 million to 3.5 million a week in an effort to offer a booking to all eligible over-18s by the end of January.
Rates of jabs administered drop off sharply every Sunday, with just 285,000 jabs given on Sunday Nov 28 compared with 465,000 the day before.
Army called up to accelerate programme
On Tuesday night, the Prime Minister said at least 400 military personnel would help the NHS and volunteers.
In coming weeks more than 3,000 sites, including 1,500 community pharmacy sites, will be asked to increase their capacity, with dozens more hospital sites opening from next week.
Mr Johnson told a Downing Street press conference: “We’ve already done almost 18 million boosters across the UK but we’ve got millions more to do to protect the most vulnerable.
“Then we’ll move down the cohorts rapidly, and working together with the devolved administrations we want to ramp up capacity across the whole United Kingdom to the levels we achieved in the previous vaccination effort.
“We’re going to be throwing everything at it in order to ensure that everyone eligible is offered that booster, as I say, in just over two months.”
The need for action was underlined as the number of confirmed cases of the omicron variant in the UK reached 22, with that figure expected to increase further.
Ms Pritchard said staff were working at “breakneck speed” to expand the booster jab rollout to all adults.
Under new advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, adults are eligible for a booster jab three months after their second dose, rather than six.
But the public was urged by the Prime Minister not to try to book “until the NHS says it’s your turn”.
People will be called forward in age order, with almost seven million people over the age of 40 in the first group to be brought forward.
The NHS will then start calling forward the extra seven million people aged 18 to 39.
Ms Pritchard said “while changes to the booking system protocols and patient group directive are put in place” the rollout would continue to vaccinate those already eligible.
As well as promising that GPs and pharmacists would be “properly rewarded” for their efforts, she said routine inspections of surgeries would remain suspended.
