GPs and hospital to help deliver booster jabs
GP SURGERIES will once again be giving out jabs in a bid to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Cllr Charles margetts, executive member for health at the borough council, said that plans are evolving to open at least one GP surgery in each five primary care networks (PCNs) across the borough.
It means that residents should have more places they can go to receive a booster jab.
Cllr Margetts said that he hopes this will mean a “large chunk” of booster jabs can be administered before the end of the month.
He said plans are also being developed to open Wokingham Community Hospital as a mass vaccination centre again.
This, he said, could happen by Monday, December 20.
He urged residents not to call their GP surgery but instead visit the national booking system, which will be updated as each PCN takes on the booster roll-out.
He said the borough council is continuing to push for the opening of a mass vaccination site in Matthewsgreen.
Earlier in the week, Cllr Margetts warned that there was not enough capacity for covid booster jabs.
Cllr Margetts wrote to Berkshire West CCG and the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care System (BOB ICS) calling for urgent action.
“It’s immensely frustrating,” the councillor said. “Politicians on the television are telling residents to go and get their booster jab, but they can’t. There’s not enough capacity.”
Cllr Margetts belives that opening a mass vaccination centre in Matthewsgreen now would also help meet the demand. But this has yet to be confirmed.
“I’ve raised a formal complaint against the CCG to BOB,” he said.
He hopes that a meeting with Dr James Kent, chief executive of BOB ICS, on Friday will resolve some of the jab availability issues.
Cllr Margetts said that he is also concerned the wrong advice is being given out to medical staff.
At the weekend, he went to the Broad Street Mall walkin centre to get a booster jab.
On arrival, Cllr Margetts said that he was told he couldn’t get a booster shot until six months after his second dose was given.
But on Wednesday, December 8, the national vaccine programme was extended so that all residents aged 40 and over, along with those in high risk groups, would be able to book in for their booster jab three months after their second dose.
When Cllr Margetts raised this, he said he was told that NHS staff at the walk-in had not been told this, and that he could not receive a booster jab. Instead, he was turned away.
Cllr Margetts said that he is very concerned if residents do not have access to the booster jab before the new year, infection rates will not only overwhelm the NHS, but also impact the running of society, from bin collections to businesses.
Jabs are now being offered to all over 18s who recieved their second dose of the vaccine at least three months ago.