Around 100,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines which are due to expire are at risk of being thrown away, it has emerged.

       NHS England had promised to collect excess doses from GP sites but the plans have been “seriously delayed”, according to leaked emails.

       Now doctors are warning the doses are due to expire this week.

       “This risks at least tens of thousands of doses being thrown in the bin, if not more than 100,000 nationally,” one GP based in Sussex told Pulse Today, a magazine for GPs in the UK.

       An email from the South East NHS England team, seen by Pulse, said some of the “excess” jabs had been collected but other sites which had been promised collections would be “picked up in the second ‘mop up’ round”.

       The email, which was sent to Clinical Commissioning Groups in Frimley, Kent and Medway, Surrey Heartlands, Sussex, Buckinghamshire and Hampshire, Southampton and the Isle of Wight, also thanked doctors for their “ongoing patience and understanding regarding the seriously delayed AZ pick up”.

       It added that the issue was being flagged by “every other region in England”.

       “The plan is in place and ready to go but has unfortunately been held up by ministers at Government level,” the email stated. “It is of great disappointment to all concerned that we are still waiting for an update on when this will take place.”

       The email also stated it was a “shame that a matter such as this has turned into a political issue” and added that the national team were “just as frustrated as we are and doing everything they can to push for government sign off as quickly as possible”.

       Around 50,000 doses are currently sitting in fridges across the South East, according to one Sussex GP, which they blamed on the change in guidance from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation to not give the vaccine to under-40s.

       It comes after nine million Covid-19 vaccines donated by the UK to other countries were due to expire at the end of September.

       A spokesperson for the Department for Health and Social Care said the Government is considering options to prevent the doses being wasted. It is understood vaccine sites have been asked to reallocate doses locally.

       “Robust measures have been put in place throughout the vaccination programme to ensure wastage is kept to an absolute minimum and we are looking at options to further reduce waste for vaccines which may expire,” the spokesperson added.