Daughter of Reading man who died after catching Covid-19 says vaccines should have been administered in homes sooner

His distraught daughter is now questioning whether vaccines should have been administered across the country to vulnerable patients at home faster.

Ken Green, from Tilehurst, had a kidney disease which meant leaving his home three times a week for dialysis at the Royal Berkshire Hospital was vital.

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"It was a danger to his life," his daughter Allison said.

"He was unable to isolate and stay safe.

"He had an appointment sent for his first vaccine on Tuesday, December 22, 2020.

"This was not possible as it was a dialysis day.

"I rang Tilehurst Surgery and told them he couldn't make a Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday."

PICTURED: Ken Green with his wife Sylvia

Allison said she asked if the vaccine could be done at her father's home because of his poor mobility due to an ulcerated leg, but was told home visits weren't possible.

She added: "On Saturday, January 9, after dad had dialysis, a nurse noticed him shaking and looking pale.

"He was taken back into the ward where they checked his oxygen levels and they had dropped quite a bit.

"So a doctor was called and he tested positive for Covid."

Ken was taken to a ward where he died nine days later.

Allison's mother Sylvia, 84, has also tested positive since, but is said to be coping well.

"She's also having to deal with losing her husband of 63 years," added Allison.

A doctor from the Tilehurst surgery explained that, like all vaccination sites, the surgery books patients into appointments according to which cohort they are in.

They said cohorts have been defined by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisations (JCVI) with the top four being:

1. residents in a care home for older adults and their carers

2. all those 80 years of age and over and frontline health and social care workers

3. all those 75 years of age and over

4. all those 70 years of age and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals

PICTURED: Ken Green

A statement from the surgery said: "The first vaccine available to us was delivered on December 21 and was the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

"As getting the Pfizer vaccine to care home residents (cohort 1) was challenging because of the requirements for transporting it and the temperature at which it is stored, we were directed to focus on vaccinating care home workers and the over 80s.

"This we did in clinics we ran from December 22 and 24, at which we fully used all the vaccine delivered and managed to complete over 1,000 vaccinations.

"By the time we received our second delivery of vaccine (again Pfizer) on January 7, there was a standard operating procedure for delivering it to care homes although still not to housebound patients."

The surgery continued to explain that it used the allocated vaccines from this delivery to one of the large care homes (cohort 1) on Saturday, January 9. It also said two clinics on January 8 and January 9 allowed the surgery to continue its vaccination of the over 80s and a number of frontline health care worker (cohort 2).

The statement continued: "Our third delivery on January 14 was of Astra Zeneca (AZ).

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"At that point it could still not be delivered to housebound patients but on the day it was delivered a statement was released from NHS England that made housebound vaccination using AZ possible.

"We used the delivery on January 14 to complete vaccination of our care homes, run another clinic for over 80s on January 15, and started a programme of vaccinating our over 80s housebound.

"Our first housebound patients were vaccinated on Wednesday, January 20."

The most recent delivery of the vaccine to the Tilehurst surgery arrived on January 20, and it said this is being used to vaccine the remaining over 80s and it is hoped to complete all its over 80 housebound patients this week.

The doctor added that every death is a tragedy, and that the surgery has worked immensely hard in getting vaccinations delivered as quickly as possible.