GPs to get priority in Covid vaccinations after all

The Dutch association for general practitioners LHV and the Ministry of Public Health announced on Monday that GPs will receive priority when it comes to the coronavirus vaccination. The first 15 thousand GPs and their employees will get vaccinated this week and next week, instead of the original start date of January 25.

The LHV has been debating with Health Minister Hugo De Jonge for the right to early vaccination given the fact that GPs are frequently in contact with coronavirus patients. The GPs were promised priority vaccination, but dropped off the priority schedule when the government announced changes to the vaccination plan last week.

The Health Minister now changed his mind due to the spread of the more contagious B117-strain of the coronavirus in the Netherlands. “With these prognoses and the pressure it puts on emergency care for COVID-patients, it is of huge value that we are able to uphold the GPs' emergency care unit”, De Jonge said.

In the upcoming two weeks, 15,000 Moderna vaccines will be administered to GPs and their employees. “It’s very good news that the vaccination of GPs will already begin this week”, LHV director Ella Kalsbeek said. “It is important for the entire medical care unit and their patients. We thank the hospitals for their help in the execution.”

The remaining 23,000 health care workers at GPs’ offices will receive the AstraZeneca-vaccine in the second week of February.