Fat cat council bosses accused of jumping the queue to get Covid jab

Fat cat council bosses including chief executive on £180,000-a-year are accused of jumping the queue after getting Covid jab – as authority admits it doesn’t know how many staff have already had jab

• Chief executive Paul Robinson and an assistant director known to have got jabs
• Jonathan Fitzgerald-Guy proudly posted about it on his social media page
• But today council insisted it had done nothing wrong and followed rules 
• It said the vaccine would have otherwise gone to waste so decision was taken
• NHS body gave it to those providing essential services responding to pandemic 

A council whose ‘fat cat’ executives were accused of jumping the Covid jabs queue admitted today they had no idea how many had been vaccinated – because of medical records laws.

Worcestershire County Council’s chief executive Paul Robinson was among those getting the Pfizeer vaccine as an outbreak at a local care home killed 15 people.

Assistant Director for Transformation and Commercial Jonathan Fitzgerald-Guy, 36, is also known to have got the treatment. He sources PPE and oversees testing for the area.

They grabbed the opportunity after being told by the NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Group there were spare Pfizer vaccine doses that needed to be used.

Today the council insisted they had done nothing wrong but then admitted it had no idea how many staff had the jab – due to medical records laws.

Mr Robinson, who gets a £180,000 salary, was the most senior member of the council who got the vaccine.

Mr Fitzgerald-Guy posted a message on Facebook showing his form to get the Covid jab

Jonathan Fitzgerald-Guy and Worcestershire Council chief executive Paul Robinson got jabs

But Mr Fitzgerald-Guy – who is paid £80,000 a year – was so proud of getting the jab he even posted a snap of his consent form on his Facebook profile, despite admitting to a pal he was not in a vulnerable ‘risk group’.

A source added to The Sun: “How do they sleep at night?

‘People are angry beyond belief. There are care homes, frontline healthcare staff and cops who are still waiting for their jabs, as well as some over-80s.’

It came just days after 15 residents at Perry Manor Care Home in Worcester were revealed to have died after testing positive for Covid-19.

Currently 90 per cent of care homes in Worcestershire have been vaccinated.

Elsewhere Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock have not received the vaccine yet.

The council said the Pfizer jab, pictured above, had to be used up in the next few hours

Commenting on people having the treatment before other priority groups, Tory MP Iain Duncan Smith said: “We don’t want people to jump the queue because it will take jabs from people who need it most and cause chaos.”

Worcestershire County Council said Mr Fitzgerald-Guy’s current role meant he sourced PPE and made sure testing was working properly.

A spokesperson insisted: “This is not a case of queue jumping for the vaccination and this council doesn’t condone any such behaviour. The vaccination programme for Worcestershire is run by the NHS and not by the County Council.

‘The decision was taken by the Herefordshire & Worcestershire CCG in discussion with other NHS Partners to offer vaccinations, at short notice to avoid wastage, to system partners who are running essential services in response to the pandemic.

‘We understand that other partner organisations in Worcestershire were also invited to ensure no vaccines were wasted, after the local Hospital Hub delivering the vaccines was unable to make use of all vaccines and because the Pfizer vaccine concerned would only remain useable for a few hours.

‘The legislation around medical information means that the Council does not have access to records of which of these staff have taken up the offer. All agreed protocols have been followed throughout and in line with the JCVI priorities. The decision to offer vaccines to system partners was made by the NHS. We are aware of the sensitivity around this issue and the Council did double-check with the CCG that these offers could be made, and this was confirmed.’

Source: Read Full Article