HEALTHCARE workers scrambled to meet a huge rise in demand for jabs today, having been given just 12 hours’ notice of a new target of one million booster doses a day.

Unions said that the government’s acceleration of the booster drive must also be met with a pay boost for the front-line workers who have been now tasked with “another huge national effort.”

Services struggled to meet the sudden surge in demand as long queues formed outside walk-in sites and the NHS website for booking vaccination appointments crashed.

Lateral flow tests were also unavailable to order online as high demand overwhelmed the government website. 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the new UK-wide daily vaccination target – part of a drive to offer a booster jab to all adults by the end of the year – during a televised address on Sunday.

He said that the acceleration was needed to counter an oncoming “tidal wave” of Covid-19’s omicron variant, and that some medical appointments would be postponed to focus on the booster effort.

While healthcare workers broadly welcomed the increased rollout, they expressed concerns about the extra pressure that this will put on already overstretched staff. 

“We are concerned about the scale and pace of this expansion, given these same nurses are already facing huge demands under existing unsustainable pressures in every part of the UK health & care system,” Royal College of Nursing general secretary Pat Cullen said. 

Royal College of GPs chairman Professor Martin Marshall said: “General practice is under immense pressure — pressure that preceded the pandemic, but [which] has intensified due to the crisis which started almost two years ago. 

“Practices understand the need to prioritise the booster programme and it is important that we are provided with guidance by NHS England to help us to deprioritise non-essential work. 

“Amidst the chronic shortage of family doctors and other team members in general practice, the profession will also need to be supplemented by additional staff, perhaps redeployed from elsewhere in the NHS, retirees and medical students, and volunteers.”

He also warned that the focus on boosters will have an “impact on the other care and services we are able to provide in general practice.”

The government was meanwhile accused of recklessness over its “inability” to prepare for the surge in demand after people were unable to order home test kits.

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “Testing is absolutely vital in keeping us safe and allowing people to make safe choices.

“The government’s inability to procure properly and plan for civil contingencies is reckless. Boris Johnson has his priorities in the wrong place.”

The UK Health Security Agency said that lateral flow test kits can still be collected from local pharmacies, some community sites and some schools and colleges.

Health unions said that the increasing demands on front-line workers must be met with a proper pay rise. 

GMB national secretary Rehana Azam said: “As governments yet again ask our NHS, social care and key front-line workers to undertake another huge national effort, they are still not paying these workers properly. 

“Against the backdrop of Covid, there is a cost-of-living crisis, key services face an understaffing crisis and the people delivering them are enduring a wage crisis. 

“Our key workers must be paid properly — it’s the least they deserve for everything they are doing for all of us.” 

Former nurse and GMB southern organiser Helen O’Connor told the Morning Star: “The government has insulted NHS staff with a 3 per cent pay offer that is a real-terms salary cut.

“We are calling on this government to put a decent pay offer on the table for all NHS staff to stop them leaving the NHS and to ensure that the booster programme is not jeopardised.”

More than 700 military personnel have been mobilised to help deliver the jabs, while vaccination centres will be open seven days a week, including on Christmas Day, for at least 12 hours a day.

The booster effort began as cases of omicron continued to rise around Britain, with an additional 1,239 cases reported on Sunday. 

Mr Johnson confirmed that at least one person had died after being infected with the new variant.