One day we will get to write some good news about our dear borough. Today is not that day. Data published by NHS England indicates that Tower Hamlets CCG has one of the lowest vaccination rates both in England and London.
There are 136 CCGs in England and of these 76 have vaccination rates for the over 65 years-old group of over 90%.
NHS Telford and Wrekin CCG are top of the England vaccination league with no less than 97.69% of the over 65s vaccinated. Well done them!
NHS Central London (Westminster) CCG is bottom of the league with 58.77% and Tower Hamlets CCG is just two places higher with 66.17% vaccinated.
The London CCGs are shown below.
London CCGs COVID-19 Vaccinations
| London CCG | % over 65 vaccinated | National Ranking | London Ranking |
|---|---|---|---|
| NHS Hillingdon | 90.76% | 70 | 1 |
| NHS Harrow | 90.59% | 73 | 2 |
| NHS Hounslow | 88.51% | 95 | 3 |
| NHS South West London | 87.47% | 106 | 4 |
| NHS Havering | 86.20% | 116 | 5 |
| NHS South East London | 85.71% | 120 | 6 |
| NHS Ealing | 85.43% | 122 | 7 |
| NHS Redbridge | 82.95% | 124 | 8 |
| NHS North Central London | 81.17% | 126 | 9 |
| NHS Brent | 77.56% | 127 | 10 |
| NHS Waltham Forest | 77.10% | 128 | 11 |
| NHS Hammersmith and Fulham | 75.59% | 129 | 12 |
| NHS Barking and Dagenham | 75.47% | 130 | 13 |
| NHS City and Hackney | 73.58% | 131 | 14 |
| NHS Newham | 70.34% | 132 | 15 |
| NHS Tower Hamlets | 66.17% | 133 | 16 |
| NHS West London | 65.74% | 134 | 17 |
| NHS Central London (Westminster) | 58.77% | 135 | 18 |
Source: NHS England COVID-19 weekly announced vaccinations England between 8th December 2020 to 21st February 2021, published 25 February 2021
In real terms this means that Tower Hamlets CCG only managed to vaccinate 13,803 eligible people out of an estimated eligible population of 20,859 in the over 65s group. However do remember this is not everyone!
Question is why the low vaccination rates?
We would have asked either LBTH or the Tower Hamlets CCG but last time we asked them for an explanation about this we did not get a reply, so this time we saved ourselves the effort.
Something we said? Or wrote?
Either way the council and CCG are keeping their explanations to themselves although we would be delighted to publish any explanations they have at any time.
One possible reason for the low rate is vaccine hesitancy but that seems unlikely to explain it fully, although Newham CCG is next up the London list with 70.34% vaccinated.
The other reason might just be that Tower Hamlets CCG has not got its act together and is just slow. Sounds unlikely. Who knows?
We still do not have the data
If better vaccination data split down to reasonably small areas and by all the different ethnic groups was published it might be possible to explain this, but we don’t have the data (although it does exist) so that’s it. Sorry.
A virtual Covid-19 vaccination Q&A and panel discussion took place on 19 February which you can see below. Do give it a watch as it is pretty good. Only 153 people viewed it on YouTube this afternoon which is pretty rubbish.
Please go watch it – you haven’t got anything else to do!
The panel included Dr Anwar Ali MBE who was very good indeed,
Dr Somen Banerjee, Director for Public Health for the borough who is the man doing all the real work and Professor Kevin Fenton who is the Public Health England National Director for Health and Wellbeing.
If you are too lazy to watch here is a brief overview. The borough has had 28,000 known Covid-19 cases (as of 19th February) and 436 deaths.
- 280,000 residents are eligible to be vaccinated and at the time of the video 28,000 had been vaccinated
- Target is that by the end of May all over 50s will be vaccinated and that covers 99% of those people most at risk and by autumn everyone eligible will have been vaccinated
- So far of the over 70s 85% of the White population, 69% of the South Asian population and 56% of the Black population have had the jab.
- The variation in take-up across the borough is between 50% and 90%
- We all need a 90% take-up across borough before we can all get back to normal life (whatever that is, we have forgotten)
- Both vaccines are equally effective so whichever one you are offered just get it
- Covid-19 Helpline is 0207 364 3030
Remember what the Queen said, think of others and get vaccinated for them, if not for yourself.
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