Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Exhilarating, pride & the joy of humanity
Regional vaccine centre sees 10,524 people in a week
phones. That wasn’t the case.
“They were just sitting quietly, as if they were contemplative, reflecting on life, or maybe just thinking about the last time they were here.”
One patient, 57-year-old Wendy Robinson from Bangor, Co Down, told us after her jab:
“The last year has been quite challenging, particularly the winter – it has been a very long winter. But there’s hope on the horizon.
“I will feel safer. My mum is in her 90s so that was always a bit of a concern. It will be just a sense of relief for us.”
From the background music to put people at ease and the scoreboard counting mounting daily jabs, to the two square meals a day for its 400 weekly staff, everything seems to have been considered.
And by week four the team is hoping to welcome 40,000 people through the doors weekly.
Naomi said: “The feeling among the staff is real exhilaration, jubilation to get to this point – it’s been a great feeling. It’s a momentous occasion for us to come and do this and it’s leaving a legacy behind as well.
“People will look back in years to come and say, ‘Covid-19, I was there, I remember doing that on a ward, in an ICU and vaccinating the masses afterwards’. It’s hugely emotional. For the staff, there were tears, there was joy, there was weariness.”
But despite the colossal task, Naomi stressed: “It’s not just a conveyor belt. There’s humanity in all of this. Tanya Daly, instead of calling this getting the vaccine, she says, ‘I am giving out hugs’.
“That is the nicest way of terming this – at the SSE hugs are being given out.” Tanya herself, who oversees clinical operations, told us she is delighted with how it has gone.
She added: “This week has been absolutely brilliant. We designed it, we had our processes in place, we tested it on Sunday, opened it on Monday and it has gone extremely well.”
Pauline Wilson, one of four senior nurses under Tanya, said: “People coming through here are all excited to receive the vaccine and are hopeful. It’s amazing how everybody has come together to work here.
“We have people on the reception from all different backgrounds who have come in through the workforce appeal and it’s been amazing.”
Jill Macintyre, head pharmacist at