Mammoth effort as East Northants vaccination rollout continues for most vulnerable

Staff at an East Northamptonshire medical centre have successfully carried out almost 4,000 vaccinations across two sites and will carry on next week with the long-awaited rollout.

Harborough Field Surgery in Newton Road, Rushden, has provided a central vaccine hub for surgeries including Parklands, Rushden Medical Centre, Higham Ferrers and Spinneybrook Medical Centre, Irthlingborough and for patients in Thrapston.

The good news comes after vaccination hopes were dashed before Christmas when a valuable batch of Pfizer/BioNTech doses were rendered unusable after a storage problem involving a fridge.

Clinical director for East Northants Dr Seamus Kelly said: "The Covid vaccination programme in East Northants has carried out almost 4,000 vaccinations to date at sites in Rushden and Thrapston.

"We will be continuing to vaccinate care home residents and staff on Monday and Tuesday next week and will get another supply of 2,800 vaccines on Wednesday which we expect to have administered to patients aged over 80 years - thanks to the efforts of our doctors, nurses, paramedic team, support staff and volunteers.

"We are very proud and thankful to everyone who has contributed to this mammoth effort. Once our over 80’s, care home residents and health and care workers have been vaccinated we will move onto the next cohort of patients."

Patients have taken to social media to praise the service offered by the team.

One patient said: "My husband and I went to Harborough Fields on Wednesday for our second vaccine. Extremely well organised. Such friendly staff. Well done NHS and thank you."

A volunteer said: "Thank you, I am one of the volunteers who was working outside in the car park on Wednesday and Thursday evening.

"I know that a lot of effort and hard work has gone into running things safely and efficiently.

"I would urge anybody to volunteer and help during this difficult time, even if it's just a few hours. If we all pull together then we will hopefully come through this quicker."

As vaccinations are taking place in winter weather and during the evenings advice has been issued to patients attending the vaccination hubs.

· Staff will contact you when your cohort is due a vaccine. Please do not call the surgery asking when you will be due your vaccine as staff are extremely busy trying to contact the current cohorts of patients

· Please make sure your contact details are up to date at your surgery. Most contacts will be made by mobile smartphone as frequently vaccine delivery is at too short notice to contact people by letter or other means. If you don’t have a mobile smartphone, please consider leaving the number of a trusted relative/friend on your clinical record. You can fill in an online form to do this or ask friends or family to do it.

· Please arrive at the time of your appointment or shortly beforehand. Please do not arrive early, this clogs up the car park and means that people wait in the cold unnecessarily. If you are early, please wait in your car until your allotted time so that you will not have to wait outside the building.

· To reduce the risk of Covid transmission inside the building and to protect staff and patients, all windows and doors are left open so expect it to be cold inside as well as outside. Dress appropriately.

· Please wear something that can expose your shoulder easily without having to remove many layers. A T-shirt and cardigan under a coat is ideal.

· The vaccine takes two weeks to take effect, please remember that immunity is not guaranteed and even if you are immune you can still transmit the virus to others so you still need to wear a mask, keep a distance of two metres from others, wash your hands frequently, and follow the lockdown rules and other government advice.