Coronavirus (COVID-19): vaccine deployment plan: update - July 2021

Minimising waste

In May 2021, the Chief Medical Officer set out our expectations of health boards in relation to minimising waste. Given the scale of the COVID-19 vaccination programme, some vaccine wastage has been unavoidable for a variety of reasons based on:

• the characteristics of the vaccine
• logistical issues with cold chain supply
• storage failure
• vial size
• specific clinical situations

We reported in our March update to the deployment plan that we were operating wastage at well below the recommended 5%. Over the previous two months to mid-July, vaccine wastage averaged 0.5%. Read further information on the vaccine wastage data. We continue to work with health boards to ensure we maintain wastage at a minimum, and maximise the availability of vaccines to the people of Scotland.

One aspect of a continuous process of improvement undertaken by staff within the vaccination programme was the development of a web-based vaccine waste recording tool. Vaccinators are able to record any vaccine wastage produced at any COVID-19 vaccine clinic. The web-based system was developed primarily to record the number of wasted doses along with the reason they were wasted to help understand common reasons for vaccine wastage and to support the introduction of measures designed to reduce waste.