The BBC contacted us on 21 January regarding claims that we were accessing the Covid-19 vaccine via a ‘back door’, which a colleague had written in an email, despite our access to the vaccine being legitimate and in line with the NHS vaccine roll out to healthcare workers.

We’d like to reassure you that we would never explore or utilise any unauthorised methods to access the Covid-19 vaccine for our colleagues and are following the NHS vaccine procedures for healthcare workers that have been put in place. 

We confirmed to the BBC that as providers of a frontline NHS service (to NHS Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group), we shared the link to the Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust portal with our colleagues, who are frontline community healthcare workers, after authorisation from our commissioners, so that we can continue to provide a service on behalf of the NHS throughout the pandemic. 

This is in line with the current guidelines for vaccinating healthcare workers providing an NHS service, so that we can continue to provide our much needed service, to help people leave hospital or help them stay at home safely and retain their independence. 

We’ve updated our social media channels with the following: As frontline healthcare workers for the NHS, the NHS has correctly included us in the coronavirus vaccine roll out, so we can continue to provide our NHS service during the pandemic, to help people leave hospital or help them stay at home safely & retain their independence. We’d like to reassure you that we would never explore or utilise any unauthorised methods to access the Covid-19 vaccine for our colleagues and are following the NHS vaccine procedures for healthcare workers that have been put in place.

We apologise for any confusion or concern that this may have caused.