Staff and volunteers praised for efforts to administer vaccines
A SENIOR health leader in Yorkshire has paid tribute to the “collective effort” of the staff and volunteers who battled through treacherous snowy conditions to ensure tens of thousands of people could get life-saving Covid-19 vaccines.
The “amazing constellation” of doctors, nurses, local authorities, armed forces, pharmacies and volunteers was praised by Prime Minister Boris Johnson for “steadily building up that immunity” as the national total given a first dose approached four million this weekend.
And in Yorkshire, one of the regions which has seen the highest proportion of vulnerable people vaccinated, community teams have continued to administer the jab in large numbers despite the recent snow.
GPs have described having to respond quickly when a delivery of the Pfizer vaccine arrives to ensure all 1,000 doses can be injected into people’s arms within a day or two. Any spare doses made available when recipients do not turn up or cannot get to their appointment are given to frontline health and social care staff. And medics say they have been able to make each crate reach more patients after discovering a vial of the Pfizer vaccine could be used for six doses rather than five.
Sam Prince, the executive director of operations at Leeds Community Healthcare and one of those leading the vaccine rollout in the city, said she was “delighted with the way it is going”.
She described an “overwhelming response” from current and former staff to meet the Government’s target of vaccinating all care home residents by January 24 and all over-70s by mid-February.
She said:
“It has been very much a complete system effort, it has been everyone working together. When we’ve had snow in the last two weeks there have been no issues in getting gritters out, it was just a case of getting together and saying ‘let’s do this’.”
Leeds was one of 50 cities opening a vaccine hub – at the Thackray Museum at St James’s Hospital – within days of the Pfizer vaccine getting approval.
On December 15, three primary care networks started administering the jab and 19 are now live.
On January 11 a staff hub opened at The Mount in the Woodhouse area of the city, focusing on vaccinating staff but also inpatients and high-risk patients. It is hoped that a vaccination centre will be opened at Elland Road in February.
The task of vaccinating has been made more challenging by snowstorms in recent days. Bradford Council commandeered 4X4 vehicles from its fleet and arranged drivers to make sure vaccines could continue to be delivered, patients could return home and health workers were able to get to their shifts. Staff transported vaccines from Keighley to Huddersfield where they were urgently required.
It has been very much a complete system effort. Sam Prince, executive director of operations at Leeds Community Healthcare.