Coronavirus vaccines could be administered by students, dentists and even vets as part of plans to ensure as many people as possible receive a dose quickly.
The Government’s drawing up plans to change the law to ensure the jab is rolled out as soon as it is ready.
An army of medical workers, who are never normally involved in vaccination programmes, will be trained by October, ready go into action once a vaccine has been approved.
Pharmacists, midwives, paramedics and physiotherapists are all set to join in the effort.
With around 1.1million people working in the NHS, officials say ‘no options are off the table’ in who they could train up.
The Government’s plans will also allow the vaccine to be used under ‘temporary authorisation’ from the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) rather than wait for it to be fully licensed by the EU.
Ministers have stressed that this is a way of reducing paperwork and won’t compromise the safety of the vaccine programme or its effectiveness.
Rules of legal liability are also set to be altered, making it harder for patients to sue healthcare workers if something goes wrong.
Deputy chief medical officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said: ‘We are making progress in developing Covid-19 vaccines which we hope will be important in saving lives, protecting healthcare workers and returning to normal in future.
‘If we develop effective vaccines, it’s important we make them available to patients as quickly as possible but only once strict safety standards have been met.
‘The proposals consulted on today suggest ways to improve access and ensure as many people are protected from Covid-19 and flu as possible without sacrificing the absolute need to ensure that any vaccine used is both safe and effective.’
A fully working vaccine that protects patients from coronavirus is seen as the only plausible way of returning the world to normal again.
But it’s not expected to be ready until 2021 although medical officials are holding out some hope that it could be here this side of Christmas.
The Government is currently backing six different vaccine candidates, and has placed orders for 340 million doses.
One of the most promising has been developed in the UK by researchers at Oxford University and is already in large-scale human trials to test its effectiveness.
A three week consultation on the changes has been launched, in anticipation of a jab being ready within months.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
