CITY TO HELP IN COVID VACCINE ROLLOUT
SOUTHMEAD HOSPITAL COULD BE ADMINISTERING NEW JABS AS SOON AS MONDAY
NORTH Bristol NHS Foundation Trust has been chosen as one of the first new ‘hospital hubs’ to roll out the coronavirus vaccine from next week.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock confirmed yesterday there are 50 hubs set up across the UK, waiting to receive the drug from Pfizer and BioNTech, which has now been approved for clinical use by regulators.
It could mean the first people are given vaccines at Southmead Hospital from as early as Monday, according to reports.
Hancock added there would be “three modes of delivery” of the vaccine.
He said: “50 hospitals across the country are already set up and waiting to receive the vaccine as soon as it’s approved, so that can now happen.
“Also vaccination centres, which will be big centres where people can go to get vaccinated. They are being set up now. There will also be a community rollout, including GPs and pharmacists.
“Now, of course, because of the -70C storage conditions of this vaccine, they will be able to support this rollout where they have those facilities.
“But they’ll also be there should the AstraZeneca vaccine be approved because that doesn’t have these cold storage requirements and so is operationally easier to roll out.”
He added: “We’re the first country in the world to have a clinicallyauthorised vaccine to roll out.”
He went on: “So from early next week we will start that programme of vaccinating people against Covid-19 here in this country.
“And as we know from earlier announcements, this vaccine is effective. The MHRA have approved it as clinically safe. And we have a vaccine, so it’s very good news.”
To the south Dorset County Hospitals have also been chosen, as well as Gloucestershire Hospitals to the north.
However, it has now emerged that most care home residents will need to wait for their Covid-19 vaccine because of difficulties in transporting the newly-approved Pfizer jab, the head of the NHS has said.
Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said the jab has to be stored at such low temperatures that it can only be moved a few times, while the packs of doses – with 975 doses per pack – cannot be easily split.
It means the recommendation from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which advises ministers, which says care home residents and staff should be the top priority, cannot be fully carried out.
Mr Stevens told a Downing Street briefing that the first people to receive the jab from 50 hospital hubs would be the over-80s, care home staff and others identified by the JCVI who may already have a hospital appointment.
GP practices will then operate local vaccination centres as more vaccine becomes available and, if regulators give approval for a safe way of splitting packs, care homes will receive stocks, he added.
He said it would take until March or April for the entire at-risk population to be vaccinated.