Jabs set to start next week

COVID vaccines could be administered at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary next week, it has emerged.

According to an NHS presentation seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the city centre hospital will be among the first in the country to be used as a vaccine hub – after the UK approved the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on Wednesday.

Middlesbrough’s James Cook Hospital is also listed as a site to deliver the vaccine in the first week of the roll-out, under the latest plans.

North Tyneside General Hospital and the Freeman Hospital are then named as locations in the second week of vaccine delivery.

It is understood the programme will see patients aged over 80, NHS staff and care workers receiving jabs.

There had been some concern the Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals Trust, which runs the RVI and the Freeman, was the only North East site listed among 53 ‘NHS Trust Vaccine Hubs’ – with no place for any other hospital across the entire region.

However, a report last week from trust chief executive Dame Jackie Daniel states Newcastle had been chosen to lead the development of a hub for the whole of the North East and North Cumbria which would “support the mass vaccination of the total area population.”

The NHS presentation also lists Whitehaven or Carlisle as a hospital hub site in week one of the process.

Large vaccination centres across the country are also being lined up, using sites such as conference centres and sporting venues to ensure wider access to jabs.

The presentation slide on “how rollout will work” was seen by North East health officials yesterday morning.