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Some 130,000 letters have already been sent to invite people to book a vaccination appointment, while 500,000 more are being sent out this week.
Last night, Royal Mail said they were “exploring a range of options with the NHS to help identify key mail items in the network even more swiftly,” while a senior Government source confirmed that ministers were pushing for NHS mail to be prioritised.
“It clearly makes sense,” they said, adding: “We want to join this up and get those letters out to people.
“We’ll always work with Royal Mail to see what the blockages are. They are understandably going to have absentees because of Covid.
“But we clearly don’t want to hold up something as important as the vaccination programme. Not everyone is a silver surfer.”
Wes Streeting, the Labour MP whose Ilford North constituency has been severely affected by the postal backlog supports any efforts to make sure that these letters are prioritised.
“I think having NHS post clearly marked and visible in a blue envelope or similar would make a real difference to postal staff trying to prioritise NHS mail,” he told the Telegraph.
“It would also provide much needed reassurance to people across the country who are really worried about the risk of missing NHS appointments.
“Any envelope that is marked NHS at the moment is meant to be prioritised, but obviously it’s a lot easier to filter those out and to see them easily and quickly if they are bright, or different coloured.”
Mr Streeting met with Royal Mail’s National Service Delivery Director Rick McCauley who stressed that this matter was being treated as a priority.
