All county GP practices have a plan in place
The NHS has provided a detailed update on the Covid vaccination programme across West Sussex.
Writing to stakeholders on Tuesday, the briefing described how a new campaign has been launched to provide clear public information to the public, patients and partners.
The Sussex Health and Care Partnership said: “We recognise the high interest from across our communities in the vaccination programme and we hope that this campaign can help to support our communities as we continue the roll out of this vital protection.”
There will be four ways the vaccination will be rolled out: a Gp-led service with groups of practices working together to give jabs at one location; hospital hubs, which have begun giving the vaccine to over 80s attending for a planned appointment and frontline health and care staff; a roving service going into care homes and people’s own homes if they cannot attend a vaccination site; and lastly large vaccination centres, with each county having one and the Brighton Centre servicing this area.
The update added: “In Sussex, people aged over 80, care home residents and staff, and health and care workers remain the priority and good progress continues to be made.
“Some people have begun receiving a letter from the national booking service inviting them to book appointments at the largescale vaccination centres. The large-scale vaccination centre for Sussex is readying to open next week, pending delivery of supplies.
“The over 70s and clinically vulnerable people will be invited to book appointments through the national booking service.
“Letters are being sent to people who live within 60 miles of a centre, so some residents in the north of Sussex will have received invitations based on their proximity to the Epsom Racecourse vaccination centre that went live last week.
“As more large-scale centres and pharmacy-led vaccination services come on-line these will be made available through the national booking service.
“Anyone who receives an invitation from the national booking service has the choice of booking an appointment at one of the larger centres or community pharmacyled sites offered or, if more convenient, waiting to be called by their GP.
“Every GP practice in West Sussex now has arrangements in place for the vaccination of their registered patients, and by the end of the week patients from all of the GP practices will have started to be invited for their vaccine appointment.”
The update urged the public not to call their GP practice about the vaccination programme.
It added: “GP practices are incredibly busy at the moment providing their day to day care for patients and they have seen an increase in calls to their teams to ask about the vaccination programme and when it will be available.
“We are working to vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible, but deploying a vaccine at this scale is unprecedented. Timing will be dependent to a large extent on manufacturing timescales and supply.”
More than 240 care settings in Sussex have now been vaccinated as of Monday and subject to vaccine supply the NHS intends to vaccinate all care homes with residents over the age of 65 by January 25 and all the county’s care homes by mid-february.
For more information on the vaccination programme for Sussex, visit www. sussexhealthandcare.uk/ keepsussexsafe/sussex-covid19-vaccination-programme