POLICE officers keeping the streets safe during the pandemic were treated to leftover vaccines by thoughtful NHS staff.

Frontline workers at the Castlemilk vaccination centre, set up in the community sport centre, jabbed 40 police officers with shots that may have otherwise gone to waste on Friday evening.

David Hamilton, the chair of the Scottish Police Federation, hailed the quick-thinking health workers.

He said: “Access to end of day vaccinations, although small in number, has been a huge morale boost for all our officers. I would like to thank the local command team and health board for acting so quickly, saving vaccines going to waste and for supporting my members, all of whom are at great personal risk as they are exposed to Covid-19 in the community.

“It is vital now that the government recognises the criticality of policing in curbing this pandemic and appropriately prioritises officers in the next phase of the vaccine programme.”

Mr Hamilton has made repeated pleas to the Scottish government to have police officers, who he argues are at high risk of catching and spreading the killer virus due to the nature of their work, vaccinated against Covid-19 as a priority.

So far, the government has not agreed to have police officers immunised before others.

A spokesman for the health board said: “We would like to thank our staff for their hard work in rolling out the vaccine, along with everyone who has taken the opportunity to be vaccinated so far.

At our clinics, if any vaccine is unused at the end of a session, we use a cold chain and transportation system so that in most cases doses can be redirected and used elsewhere. While this keeps waste to a minimum, in rare instances where wastage would be otherwise unavoidable, we may offer the vaccine locally as was the case on Friday when it was offered to a small group of police officers on duty near the Castlemilk Sports Centre vaccination hub.