GPs begin offering Covid vaccine as part of biggest NHS immunisation programme
Local vaccination services in the community run by family doctors and their teams have open across Sussex this week. This is the latest stage of the rollout of the biggest vaccination programme in NHS history.
Eight vaccination services have gone live in the first phase of GP-led services for our local population. This follows the launch of the vaccination programme in hospital hubs on Tuesday last week.
Each vaccination service is being supported by one or several GP practices, with their teams working collectively to vaccinate patients at these sites.
At the vaccination services, nurses, paramedics, pharmacists and other NHS staff will work alongside GPs to vaccinate those aged 80 and over, as well as care home workers and residents, identified as priority groups for the life-saving vaccine.
This week’s milestone marks significant work from practice teams across Sussex to work rapidly to plan for the vaccination programme, redesign their sites and put in place safe processes to meet the tough logistical challenges of offering the vaccination.
The sites that have gone live are the first across Sussex, but more will launch over the coming weeks with more GP practices contacting patients to invite them in for their vaccinations.
People are asked not to contact their GP surgery so that their practice team can focus on arranging the vaccinations and provide day to day for all of their registered patients. You will be contacted when it is your turn to receive the vaccine.
Dr Nikki Kanani, practising GP and NHS Director of Primary Care, said: “GPs, nurses, pharmacists and other primary care staff are eager to play their part in protecting people against coronavirus.
“This is the greatest vaccination programme ever undertaken by the NHS and, to help vaccinate people safely, we will be working with local communities to deliver it in convenient and familiar settings.
“As a GP I am proud to be part of this huge national effort to protect our patients against the virus and I would urge the public to come forward when they are called up for the vaccine.”
The community sites build on the work of the scores of hospital hubs which have already started vaccinating, with 90-year old Margaret Keenan receiving her first dose to become a global trailblazer in Coventry last Tuesday.
The latest phase of the vaccine roll-out is being co-ordinated by GP-led primary care networks with more practices and community pharmacies in other parts of England joining on a phased basis during December and in the coming months.