As of 7 January, NHS England and Improvement has written to all NHS Trusts, Primary Care Networks and GP practices outlining the operational guidance for the vaccination of frontline healthcare workers, which includes those operating in private practice, such as osteopaths.
We expect the other home nations to follow shortly.
As the regional mechanisms for identification, invitation and delivery are put in place, we are working to identify how those osteopaths who wish to receive the vaccine can be identified by their local NHS Trust hubs who are coordinating the vaccination programmes at a local level.
In the meantime, if you wish to receive the vaccine, you may want to write to your GP surgery and/or local trust to register your occupation as registered healthcare practitioner for inclusion in the vaccination programme under category 2b.
A list of both the hospital hubs and the local GP services are available from here. We recommend checking the relevant hub and or GP services for your area to approach.
If required, we have produced a template letter which you can personalise to make this request, available here.
This approach may yield mixed results dependant on your local area. The procedures have only just been issued, and the trusts are only at this point working out how to deal with the significant task of creating their local processes and hubs for delivery. Patience and persistence are the key words in the current circumstances.
We will keep you updated as further information is made available.