Vaccine ‘supercentres’

Dear Editor,

While the efforts of frontline staff and the successful rollout of the initial round of the vaccination programme seems to be making inroads into the spread of the virus, the more recent actions of the NHS Lanarkshire Health Board in setting up ‘super clinics’, seems to have moved away from a patient centred deliver y to one which suits the need of the board in achieving Scottish Government vaccine deliver y targets.

In the first round of the roll out GP practices, health board clinics and local vaccine hubs have been successful in delivering a local ser vice.

From Monday, March 8, two ‘super centres’, one at the Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility Centre and another in The Alistair McCoist Complex in East Kilbride have been selected for the administration of vaccines.

Another seven local centres have also been opened but the only sites in North Lanarkshire are in Bellshill and Coatbridge.

When the Ravenscraig facility was mothballed in mid Februar y, Dr Mark Russell, lead for the

Covid-19 Vaccination Programme in Lanarkshire, insisted that Ravenscraig was always part of NHS Lanarkshire’s plan for the deliver y of the vaccine.

He said: “It is still part of our plan and will be used when we need the extra capacity – for example, at weekends.

“Currently, our communities are choosing to attend their local community vaccination centres.”

The suggestion that people were choosing to attend their local community vaccination centres is disingenuous, since the initial letter would have directed them to a local vaccination centre and to the best of my knowledge no centre operated a walk in clinic.

I gladly accepted the invitation for the first vaccine at Wishaw Sports

Centre, within easy access of my home and ser ved by public transport, thanks to a local transport provider diverting two buses per hour to ser ve the centre.

I fear that should I receive an invitation to attend Ravenscraig for my second vaccination, I will consider declining and arranging for attendance at a mini centre in Bellshill.

It is roughly a 25 minute walk from Flemington to Ravenscraig.

There is no public transport provision to Ravenscraig during the day and only an hourly ser vice from Wishaw to Ravenscraig after 6pm in the evening and even this would result in a wait of 45 minutes for return journey after vaccination.

When the original closure of the Ravenscraig facility was announced Wishaw MSP Clare Adamson said: “I have raised the reported closure at Ravenscraig Sports Centre with the health board as I had previously expressed concerns about transport links to the site.

“A few things have been made clear following these enquiries.”

While the health board plans for the continued operation of the vaccine programme, the same question of transport links remains unresolved.

I recall in the early days of the vaccine programme, Fife Health

Board provided transport from local centres to major centres. Has this been considered by NHS Lanarkshire Health Board?

Certainly the provision of ‘super centres’ is easier to arrange on terms of logistics and staff deployment it does face the general public with a dilemma which would be avoided if the original local centres had been maintained. Is there still time for a rethink?

A Carluke dental practice were hailed as one of the best in Scotland after a recent awards victory. The Tooth Doctor won the Best Patient Care category at the 2020 Dentistry Scotland Awards. The practice was also selected as a 2020 finalist in the Best Team, Best Patient Care, Best Young Dentist and Best Treatment of Nervous Patients categories. “We entered the awards event because we wanted to show how hard the team works and the type of treatments we do at the practice resulting in amazing before and afters for our patients who appreciate what we do,”said Treatment Co-ordinator Claire Nelson. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the award night was virtual so some of the Tooth Doctor team watched the ceremony on the television in the practice, whilst others watched it at home with celebratory glasses of bubbly all round when the announcement was made.