Second clinic pops up to ease Covid jab fears
ASECOND pop-up vaccine clinic has opened with the aim of reassuring people in the BAME community who are hesitant to take the jab.
The new clinic opened at Wardleworth Community Centre on Thursday, February 18 aiming to continue the vaccine drive in the community.
After the success of the first pop-up clinic the new site vaccinated 218 people in cohorts of the over 60s, religious leaders and key workers in the community.
Run by Rochdale Health Alliance, the clinic was organised in partnership with Rochdale Borough Council, Rochdale Council of Mosques and supported by community champions and volunteers from Living Well.
Recent studies have shown that people from the BAME community have a significantly lower uptake of the vaccine and are more hesitant to come forward.
As such the clinic aimed to target these groups and Wardleworth Community Centre was chosen as it sits in a large Bangladeshi and Kashmiri community – recent data showed that the Bangladeshi community had some of the lowest uptake in the borough.
Most of those attending the clinic were from the BAME communities and organisers were happy to see people of Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Kashmiri heritage in attendance.
Wardleworth Community Centre manager Doulot Miah said: “We were approached by Rochdale Health Alliance and the Rochdale Council of Mosques last week to play host to the second of these pop-up clinics.
“We knew this would be a huge success, so despite only getting four days’ notice we prepared the centre to accommodate this much-needed service.
“Having said that I was really surprised when we had a long queue that stretched around the centre and people were happy to wait.
“This clearly shows bringing services out into neighbourhoods are better accessed by communities, rather than a central hub which people often find difficult to get to.”
Dobir Miah, spokesperson for the Rochdale Council of Mosques, said: “The common thing seems to be that many in the BAME community want to see access to services local to where they live and these pop-up clinics have certainly done that.
“We continue to reiterate our message and firmly believe that vaccination is the best way to combat the pandemic and return to our normal way of life.
“In Islam, preservation of life is of the utmost importance, so we want to do our part to reassure those who are hesitant about vaccination.”
In addition Lateral Flow Tests (LFTS) have also been held at various community venues – for more details please visit the council website http://www.rochdale.gov.uk/coronavirus.
Dr Mo Jiva, lead clinician at the Rochdale Health Alliance (RHA) said: “We had a really good turnout. Having arrived with 110 doses we soon realised we will need another batch due to the numbers coming through.
“I would like to thank our amazing volunteers who once again did exceptionally well to get through so many people in just two hours, and for making it a seamless process for those who turned up.
“We will be doing a number of these over the coming weeks in different parts of the town to increase uptake and reduce any fears in communities.”
At present anyone in the borough of Rochdale over the age of 60 can book a test by simply emailing their details (name, date of birth, GP surgery and contact number) to hmrccg.hmr. enquiries@nhs.net or by calling 0300 303 0355.