A RURAL GP has criticised the "cumbersome" system for recording Covid booster jabs which have led to reception staff working on their evenings off.
Dr John McSparran, who is based in a busy Cushendall practice in the Glens of Antrim, said it is taking three minutes to input information on each patient who has received their third dose and an additional three minutes for the winter flu jab.
To date, his practice has administered more than 1,000 doses of the booster shot in the local parish hall.
Earlier this week there was criticism that Northern Ireland was lagging well behind Britain in the rollout of the next phase of the vaccination programme, with less than 30 per cent jabbed.
But Dr McSparran said uptake was probably higher due to the problems encountered when uploading patient details on the central 'Vaccine Management System' (VMS).
"We've had receptionists and admin staff working out-of-hours on this. You can't record a patient who has had the booster and flu jab at the one time, it must be done separately," he said.
"They're asking a lot of questions around consent - if a patient is coming in to get it you have to presume there is consent. So it's so cumbersome.
"Our appointments are every three minutes but take six minutes to record so essentially what's happening is that our staff are taking work home with them to upload it onto VMS.
"There were also problems with ordering the Pfizer booster vaccines initially for us.
"We wanted to administer the flu and booster at the same time. A lot of us had organised our flu clinics in advance but had no access to getting the booster. So we had to go ahead with the flu jab and call people back - it was an organisational disaster area.
"It's so difficult to organise all these things.
"First of all you must have the six-month gap between the second and third dose. Then you have to contact all the patients via phone or text and then there is the palaver of VMS."
When asked if the Department of Health planned to change the recording system, a spokeswoman said: "The department is in regular contact with GP representatives and much work has already been done to refine the Vaccine Management System, making it easier for GPs to record the vaccination history of their patients.
"The department will continue to work with GPs to streamline the process further where possible.
"Efforts are also underway to try and provide GPs with additional admin support to enable the VMS to be updated in a timely manner.
"All GPs are already able to access the Moderna vaccine. Moderna comes in smaller packs of 100 doses which will be of particular benefit to smaller practices.
"In addition, plans are in place to allow for smaller packs of the Pfizer vaccine in due course."
