Actual / full costs of COVID 19 vaccination program

Summary

The requester asked for the full actual and future costs of the Isle of Man's COVID-19 vaccination program, including staff wages, venue running costs, and storage expenses. The Department of Health and Social Care responded that it could not provide full actual costs due to ongoing uncertainty in the delivery model, instead providing approved budgets and estimated expenditures for specific areas.

Key Facts

• The Department of Health and Social Care stated it does not hold full accurate costings for the vaccination program at the time of the response.
• A practical refusal reason was applied under section 11(3)a of the Act because some requested information could not be found.
• The Department provided estimates rather than actual costs for the management of the program through September 2021.
• The response indicated that known costs would be identified while others would remain estimated expenditure.
• The request covered costs for venue conversion, staff redeployment, security, and refrigeration.

Data Disclosed

• £350,000
• £190,000
• September 2021
• 2021-01-27
• 2021-02-23
• 1649013

Exemptions Cited

• Section 11(3)a of the Act (Practical refusal: information not held or cannot be found after reasonable steps)

Original Request

Question 1: All costs related to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) COVID 19 vaccination program to date and future known costs. This includes money used to convert current alternatively used locations, and cost of return to previous function when restrictions are lifted. Question 2: Actual running costs of each hub-rent/lighting/heating/security provision of fridges and medical equipment etc. Question 3: Staff running costs (wages), including the 'no charge' opportunity costs of staff redeployed from elsewhere. These staff have a real cost to the service, and there is also a loss of provision of their usual service so their wages must be included in this calculation as it is essential for the future delivery once such staff are returned to their usual role. This includes all clinical and non clinical staff. It is also imperative that the admin/managerial costs be included. This also includes For those booking the clinics prior to the actual hubs being open. If this is only part of their role and proportion of each person's wage should be allocated towards the actual cost to run this service. If the Role each individual holds towards COVID 19 vaccination program is only part of their job, a percentage of their wage needs to be included which reflects the hours taken of their role towards this purpose. Question 4: Further cost to be covered is the storage and security costs for holding the vaccine. This includes lighting/refrigeration costs/staff costs regarding security for each storage location between clinical opening times etc. Any scoping costs should also be included which were needed to initiate the project.

Data Tables (1)

Data Tables (reformatted)

Full Response Text

Interim Chief Executive: Kathryn Magson Freedom of Information Team Crookall House Demesne Road Douglas Isle of Man IM1 3QA

Tel: (01624) 642621 Email: dhsc@foi.gov.im Website: www.gov.im/dhsc

Our ref: 1649013 23rd February 2021

Dear ###

We write further to your request which was received on the 27th January 2021 and states:

“Question 1: All costs related to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) COVID 19 vaccination program to date and future known costs. This includes money used to convert current alternatively used locations, and cost of return to previous function when restrictions are lifted. Question 2: Actual running costs of each hub-rent/lighting/heating/security provision of fridges and medical equipment etc. Question 3: Staff running costs (wages), including the 'no charge' opportunity costs of staff redeployed from elsewhere. These staff have a real cost to the service, and there is also a loss of provision of their usual service so their wages must be included in this calculation as it is essential for the future delivery once such staff are returned to their usual role. This includes all clinical and non-clinical staff. It is also imperative that the admin/managerial costs be included. This also includes for those booking the clinics prior to the actual hubs being open. If this is only part of their role and proportion of each person’s wage should be allocated towards the actual cost to run this service. If the Role each individual holds towards COVID 19 vaccination program is only part of their job, a percentage of their wage needs to be included which reflects the hours taken of their role towards this purpose. Question 4: Further cost to be covered is the storage and security costs for holding the vaccine. This includes lighting/refrigeration costs/staff costs regarding security for each storage location between clinical opening times etc.

Any scoping costs should also be included which were needed to initiate the project.” Our response: Actual/full costs of COVID 19 vaccination program Question 1: All costs related to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) COVID 19 vaccination program to date and future known costs. This includes money used to convert current alternatively used locations, and cost of return to previous function when restrictions are lifted. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Department of Health and Social Care (“the Department”) is unable to provide the information you have requested. This is in line with section 11(3)a of the Act, as a practical refusal reason applies; namely we do not hold or cannot, after taking reasonable steps to do so, find some of the information that you have requested. The Department is unable to provide actual or full costs of the vaccination programme at this time as there is still a level of uncertainty around the delivery model over the whole period of the programme. The Department will only be able to provide current known expenditure and estimated costs for the programme as at the date of these FOI questions. As such known costs will be identified and all others will be estimated expenditure. The Department does not at this time have full accurate costings for many of the areas of the vaccinations programme, however, the Department does have estimates for certain areas of cost as identified below. These estimates are as follows: For the management of the vaccination programme through to September 2021 a figure of £350,000 has been approved, however it has been estimated that approximately £190,000 will be required. For the Vaccination Delivery Teams (vaccinators and healthcare professionals) based on the current vaccine delivery schedules and to the end of September 2021, approvals have been given for a sum of £250,000, however, this is for the initial vaccination team estimated to cost approximately £185,000 – work is currently underway to cost out the expanded team costs, through to September 2021. The build of the airport vaccine hub was initially set at £78,000, however, the final cost of this is not as yet known. The build of the Chester Street Hub is estimated at approximately £120,000, the final cost of this is not as yet known. In order to provide vaccinations through the Primary Care network, approvals have been given for a spend of up to £535,000.

The following specific costs have been incurred to date specifically for the vaccination programme and where the items cannot be provided from general use. These figures are as follows: 2 x Specialist Ultra Low Temperature (-70) freezers for Pfizer BioNTech vaccine Storage purchased at a cost of: £12,536.00. 6 x Specialist fridges for general vaccine storage purchased at a cost of: £19,770.00. 2 x Specialist freezers (-20) freezers for Moderna vaccine storage purchased at a cost of: £7,260.00. 22 x dressing trolleys for Chester St and Airport Hub: £4,045.09. 2 x AED 3 BLS defibrillator for Chester St and Airport Hub: £2,529.68. 57 x plastic 70 litre sack holders for Ward 20, Chester St and the Airport Hub, for clinical waste collection: £9,204.68. 12 x high back office chairs in vinyl for hub admin teams: £1,116.00. 12 x wheelchairs for Chester St Vac Centre 1,224.36. Specialist vaccine porters for safe transportation of vaccines between vaccine storage facility and various administration sites: £1,703.46. Specialist temperature monitors for vaccine porters and remote monitoring of fridges: £2,020. IT equipment and required upgrades for administration provision at Chester St and the Airport: £10,802.25. Question 2: Actual running costs of each hub-rent/lighting/heating/security provision of fridges and medical equipment etc. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Department
of Health and Social Care (“the Department”) is unable to provide the information you have requested. This is in line with section 11(3)a of the Act, as a practical refusal reason applies; namely we do not hold or cannot, after taking reasonable steps to do so, find some of the information that you have requested. The actual running costs of the hubs relating to utilities are currently not known, as the sites are government owned properties it is not envisaged that there will be any rental costs. Question 3: Staff running costs (wages), including the 'no charge' opportunity costs of staff redeployed from elsewhere. These staff have a real cost to the service, and there is also a loss of provision of their usual service so their wages must be included

in this calculation as it is essential for the future delivery once such staff are returned to their usual role. This includes all clinical and non-clinical staff. It is also imperative that the admin/managerial costs be included. This also includes for those booking the clinics prior to the actual hubs being open. If this is only part of their role and proportion of each person’s wage should be allocated towards the actual cost to run this service. If the Role each individual holds towards COVID 19 vaccination program is only part of their job, a percentage of their wage needs to be included which reflects the hours taken of their role towards this purpose. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Department of Health and Social Care (“the Department”) is unable to provide the information you have requested. This is in line with section 11(3)a of the Act, as a practical refusal reason applies; namely we do not hold or cannot, after taking reasonable steps to do so, find some of the information that you have requested. The following staffing costs have been estimated to the end of September 2021, these are not the complete costs and further work is underway to estimate the costs of additional staff for administration of the vaccines. For the management of the vaccination programme a figure of £350,000 has been approved, however it has been estimated that approximately £190,000 will be required. For the Vaccination Delivery Teams (vaccinators and healthcare professionals) based on the current vaccine delivery schedules approvals have been given for a sum of £250,000, however, this is for the initial vaccination team estimated to cost approximately £185,000 – work is currently underway to cost out the expanded team costs, through to September 2021 The Department currently holds the following information in regards to current expenditure on staffing costs as follows: Management of programme - £25,630. Nursing (vaccinator and assistant costs) - £17,634 includes Agency and Bank Staff costs to date. Agency Admin and Clerical Staff - £2,675. No additional incurred costs have been received to date; there is a delay in reclaiming internal salary costs, where allocated to the programme. However, in the response to Question 1 estimated costs for the programme are identified; this includes all redeployment, backfill and costs for any staff who may be required to work within the programme. The information in regards to costs for the booking of clinics etc. is not held by this Department as this service is provided by the Cabinet Office.

Question 4: Further cost to be covered is the storage and security costs for holding the vaccine. This includes lighting/refrigeration costs/staff costs regarding security for each storage location between clinical opening times etc. Any scoping costs should also be included which were needed to initiate the project. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Department of Health and Social Care (“the Department”) is unable to provide the information you have requested. This is in line with section 11(3)a of the Act, as a practical refusal reason applies; namely we do not hold or cannot, after taking reasonable steps to do so, find some of the information that you have requested. The following costs are currently known in regard to the purchase of equipment for the storage of the various vaccines:

2 x Specialist Ultra Low Temperature (-70) freezers for Pfizer BioNTech vaccine Storage purchased at a cost of: £12,536.00. 6 x Specialist fridges for general vaccine storage purchased at a cost of: £19,770.00. 2 x Specialist freezers (-20) freezers for Moderna vaccine storage purchased at a cost of: £7,260.00. As at the 27th January 2021 the Department expects further information will be available in March 2021. Please quote the reference number 1649013 in any future communications.

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More detailed information on your right to a review can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.inforights.im. Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Further information about freedom of information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi. I will now close your request as of this date.

Yours sincerely