A TOP politician in the county has hit out at the way Covid-19 vaccines are distributed into Cumbria.

Stewart Young, Labour leader of Cumbria County Council, said the variation in the supply of Covid-19 vaccine into Cumbria was bringing "chaos", with health services in the county finding it "really difficult" to plan their vaccine distribution due to changes in the vaccine levels coming into Cumbria.

He called on the Government to ensure more Covid-19 vaccine supplies were secured.

Earlier this week, Mr Young criticised the decision to reduce the amount of vaccine distributed across the North West NHS region in February.

The North West NHS region, which includes south Cumbria but not north Cumbria, received slightly more than 300,000 vaccines per week in the latter half of January.

But NHS England have confirmed that this figure will be reduced to about 200,000 in the second week of February, a fall of about a third.

The North West NHS region has been performing well in distributing Covid-19 vaccine, with figures published this week placing Lancashire and south Cumbria in the top five areas for the percentage of over 80s given their first vaccine dose.

Following the news that vaccine supplies into the north west, including south Cumbria, were to reduce in the first two weeks of February, Mr Young said it feels "like a kick in the teeth for Cumbria.

"The vaccine roll-out here has been one of the most effective in the country thanks to outstanding work by our local hospitals, GP practices and others.

"To now find out that the county will be penalised for that success will rightly frustrate local people who are waiting patiently for their turn."

Mr Young said there was an "urgent need" to understand more on the Government's plans for vaccine distribution, and "why the county appears to be being put on the ‘back-burner’ for vaccine roll out".

“Our hospitals are under enormous pressure, and whilst the lockdown is reducing the number of cases, it is vital that the vaccination programme is rolled out as quickly as possible," he said.

"The Government needs to ensure that there is enough vaccine for everyone. ”

He said Cumbria has "never been clear in advance" how much of the Covid-19 vaccine the county was set to get.

This, Mr Young said, has made it difficult for GP practices in Cumbria to plan out their vaccine distribution.

"GP practices have to organise a list of people to come in. They have to contact them and tell them to come in at a certain time. They can't have everyone turning up together. They have to organise all the appointments.

"They need to know how much vaccine they're going to have."

It would be "wonderful", Mr Young said, if orders could be placed according to local need.

But he added that is "not the case", and instead distribution is "centrally controlled".

Vaccine supplies are the "limiting factor" in the speed at which the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine in Cumbria can take place, Mr Young said.

"The Prime Minister has made promises that everybody within certain categories are going to be vaccinated by certain dates," Mr Young said.

"That was made without any understanding of how much could be produced, I would guess," he added.

"You can't vaccinate people if you don't have enough vaccine. We've got the capacity and the plans to meet the target. But the limiting factor is the vaccine.

"If we don't get enough vaccine, then we won't meet the target."

The news this week that there are set to be planned reductions in supply, for Mr Young, "throws it all into doubt" whether Cumbria will meet its share of the ambitious vaccination targets set by the Prime Minister.

"Up until this announcement, my answer would have been yes, that we are confident that we can do it," he said.

John Stevenson, the Conservative MP for Carlisle, said that the vaccination targets set for the nation "was always challenging", and stressed that Cumbria has done "extremely well to date" on its vaccine rollout.

"But we also have to recognise that we are one country, and if different parts of the country are falling behind, we have to make sure they get supplies to take them up to a similar level that we are at," he said.

"We are all in this together, and one part of the country should not be monopolising supplies to the detriment of another part of the country.

"We want to make sure it's delivered as equitably as possible."

Vaccine suppliers can, Mr Stevenson added, "only provide so much" vaccine at any one time.

"They are churning out as much as they can."

He added that in total, "more than enough" doses of the vaccine for the entire country have been ordered.

"It's now a case of the manufacturers providing it, and us distributing it across the country."

The priority, Mr Stevenson said, should be to get the "whole country" vaccinated.

"That means that places that fall behind slightly need to catch up".

Vaccine distribution is coordinated by NHS England. North Cumbria's NHS services fall under the North East and Yorkshire NHS region.

A spokesperson for the NHS in the North East and Yorkshire said: “As the NHS has always made clear, vaccine is being allocated on a fair shares basis across the UK and also within England."

The spokesperson added that this is "so that everyone aged 70 and over is offered vaccination regardless of which region they live in, so vaccines are not being diverted - they are being fairly allocated week by week."