Pop-up clinics reach out to help vaccinate the city’s Pakistani community
A POP-up coronavirus vaccine clinic tailored to the Pakistani community will return to Derby after a successful trial.
Separate spaces for women to have the jab are among features organisers say make the clinic “culturally specific and religiously sensitive”.
It was first brought to the Pakistan Community Centre in Pear Tree on Friday, March 26, and now another two pop-up clinics have already been organised for the coming weeks.
Mohammed Yaqub, 59, manager of the Harrington Street community centre, said: “It’s been really frustrating because Covid disproportionately affects the BAME community if you look at the hospitalisation and death figures.
“The Government’s report into this put it down to underlying health conditions and these are the same health conditions that public bodies have been trying to tackle for the last 30 years, like heart conditions and obesity. At some stage these agencies need to stop and look at the result of their work and question why it hasn’t been having an impact.
“So you’ve got that historic distrust around some of these public health measures which has led to the vaccine hesitancy that we’ve been seeing in the community.
“So we’re now trying to make the vaccination programme more culturally specific and religiously sensitive by essentially taking the vaccine and bringing it directly to the community.”
During the two-hour trial of the pop-up clinic, Mohammed says more than 50 people came for their vaccine during that period. Another two pop-up clinics have been organised for the next two Fridays, with future clinics being set up according to demand.
The operation has been organised by the Pakistan Community Centre alongside organisations including the local NHS clinical commissioning group and Derby City Council.
People are given the option of using a phone number or a website link to book their vaccine at the centre, both of which are on leaflets printed in both English and Urdu.
Vaccines are administered by three trained professionals from Derby’s Pear Tree Pharmacy, although organisers say more vaccinators can be brought in depending on the number of people.
Asaf Afzal, 54, chairman of the Pakistan Community Centre, said: “Doing this means that people are
able to get the vaccine in their local area and in an environment which they are comfortable in and familiar with.
“We also make sure that men and women have their own separate spaces and our volunteers are fluent in several languages and dialects such as Urdu and Punjabi.
“I think one of the problems has been that some people may not be electronically registered with their GP and so will be getting leaflets through their door in a language that they don’t understand.
“Those people may also not have the skills to get online, so we’re making sure that there are people in the centre who will be able to speak the language or dialect of those coming in, because communication is crucial in terms of making sure that people know what’s going on.”
Organisers say bringing pop-up clinics into communities also means people can be reassured against myths about the vaccines.
Asaf said: “Some people have side effects and some people don’t but we’re all built differently. I had mine done three weeks ago and was absolutely fine.
“My wife had her vaccine last week at the pop-up clinic and had some side effects at first, but the kids were happy with that because it meant that we had a takeaway.
“But now she’s absolutely fine as well and the point is that the medical experts, the public health bodies and the government are all people that we’d expect to say that the vaccine is safe.
“So what people in our community need is local people talking to each other and asking questions to provide that reassurance.”
Asaf said another way in which the centre was being sensitive to the Pakistani community was in its preparations for Ramadan starting next month.
He said: “During Ramadan people are fasting from sunrise to sunset and so given the possibility of aftereffects from the vaccine, it’s good to get as many people vaccinated before Ramadan as we can.
“But during Ramadan, if the demand is there, we could offer a night-time pop-up clinic, which again is another way of bringing the vaccine to the community in a way that’s aware of culture and religion.”
Asaf said the NHS working together with community groups like the Pakistan Community Centre could be useful in the future.
He added: “By working with the
NHS and public health we’ve been giving people that sense of equal opportunity.
“I’ve even had local taxi firms getting in touch offering me their help if anyone wants lifts to and from their vaccine appointments, which has been really great, and I think it sometimes takes something like this for the wider community to come together.
“Health inequality definitely exists within our community, where people are disproportionately suffering from things such as a vitamin D deficiency or obesity.
“Given how well this has worked so far there is an argument to say that this kind of healthcare, where the NHS and other bodies are working together with communities, is a good way of addressing those inequalities even after coronavirus.”