Fears elderly will miss vaccine letters as Royal Mail reveals list of ‘Covid blackspots’ receiving limited or no post

ROYAL Mail has sparked fears elderly Brits will miss their Covid vaccine letters after revealing a list of "blackspots" that are receiving little or no post.

Tens of thousands of Brits in 28 areas are only receiving “limited” deliveries including parts of London, the South East and the North as more of Royal Mail's workforce is struck down by Covid-19.

VACCINATION APPOINTMENT LETTERS

In some areas residents are reporting that they have not received post for more than a month.

And MPs now worry the postal delay could mean that that elderly residents will not receive notifications of when a coronavirus vaccine is available to them.

Over 130,000 letters have been sent out already to those aged over 80 and who live more than 45 minutes drive away from the seven regional centres.

A further 500,000 will be posted this week.

The affected areas include 13 in or near London, while others include Leeds in West Yorkshire, Chelmsford in Essex, Widnes in Cheshire and Margate in Kent.

Valerie Wallbank from Hainault in north-east London told the Ilford Recorder she had not received any mail since December 12.

"It's quite serious," she told the paper. "Some people are not bothered because they do everything online but for some of us it's quite important."

The issue has prompted calls, including from MPs and the Communication Workers Union (CWU), for postal workers to be added to the priority list of people receiving coronavirus vaccinations.

'WORKING HARD'

In a statement published with the list on its website, Royal Mail said it was "working hard to deliver the most comprehensive and high quality service we can to all our customers" despite the pandemic and the associated rise in pressure on delivery resources due to increased online shopping.

"The combination of greatly increased uptake of online shopping, and the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions, mean that all delivery companies are experiencing exceptionally high volumes," the statement said.

"Every single parcel and letter is important to us. Despite our best efforts and significant investment in extra resource, some customers may experience slightly longer delivery timescales than our usual service standards.

"This is due to the exceptionally high volumes we are seeing, exacerbated by the coronavirus-related measures we have put in place in local mail centres and delivery offices to keep our people and customers safe. In such cases, we always work hard to get back to providing our usual level of service as quickly as we can."

Ilford MP Wes Streeting said while it was understandable that Royal Mail was being affected by the virus, the problems were having "a serious knock-on impact on people getting important NHS correspondence, both about their vaccination and also other routine appointments".

"I have been told locally that Royal Mail are prioritising the delivery of parcels to get the backlog down, but I wonder if there is a way for NHS correspondence to be clearly labelled as such and prioritised for delivery," Mr Streeting told The Daily Telegraph.

"No one wants to see a situation where people are missing their vaccination appointments."

Meanwhile one Royal Mail insider told the Telegraph: "We're really struggling," while the Communication Workers Union called for postal workers to receive priority access to the vaccine.

On its website, Royal Mail advises people in the regions who have been left a "Something for you" card from the service to check its website to learn revised opening hours for when they can collect the item.

"If we've not left a 'Something for you card', and you do not have alternative arrangements in place, we're sorry that your mail will not be available for collection," the advice says.

The Daily Mail has reported the CWU has called for the Government to prioritise postal workers on the list of people in line to receive Covid vaccinations, and that BT has also called for its engineers to be added to help with its call-out capabilities.