Analysis of clinical enquiries received by five COVID-19 vaccination centres in the UK

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore the nature of clinical enquiries received by UK vaccination centres during the early stages in the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccination programme. Four centres were situated in acute hospitals and one centre was in a designated public site. Data were collected for eight consecutive weeks between January and February 2021. The hospital centres administered a total of 28 995 doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, receiving 806 enquiries (1 enquiry per 36 vaccinations, 2.7%). The public centre administered 29 167 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, receiving 439 enquiries (1 enquiry per 66 vaccinations, 1.5%). Combined enquiry rate was 2.1%. The most common enquiries were related to allergies (44%), compatibility with other medicine (22%) and immunosuppression (16%). These were the topics of clinical guidance that were subject to regular change. Public health programmes implementing novel therapies should ensure the provision of sufficient enquiry answering capacity.