GP jab team ‘on offensive’ in fight against virus

BUCKS: A Marlow GP working out of a vaccination site at Adams Park in High Wycombe says her team are on track to meet Government targets as the rollout of the vaccine continues in the county.

Penny Macdonald is managing partner at the Marlow Medical Group and clinical director for the Arc Primary Care Network (PCN) – a combination of six GPs in South Bucks, including Wooburn and Bourne End Medical Centre.

The Arc PCN has been administering jabs to the most vulnerable since January 7, setting up a base at the home of Wycombe

Wanderers Football Club, along with a fellow PCN.

The Adams Park site has about 12 ‘vaccination pods’ set up, with 1,200 jabs given on Monday this week.

“By the end of this week we will have vaccinated 10,000 people in under nine weeks,” Penny said.

“And we are getting really good supplies of the vaccine through now.”

The GP added that by February 15, the team hope to have vaccinated people within the top four priority cohor ts.

But housebound patients could take longer, Penny said, with some care homes also put on hold due to outbreaks at certain providers, although Penny assured ‘we have done as many as we can’.

She added: “It is an enormous relief. This has been one of the greatest responsibilities of our lives and we felt it very keenly. It has been an absolute pleasure.

“It is the first time we have had an opportunity to be on the offensive rather than the defensive.”

NHS figures show that a total of 187,343 vaccines have been given out as of January 24 in the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West region.