Rycote Practice
The Rycote Practice continues to work hard to vaccinate patients as swiftly as the vaccine arrives. By the end of January we will have vaccinated all patients who have been shielding and are deemed clinically vulnerable as well as several hundred more patients who are under the age of 75. We are currently waiting to hear when our next vaccine delivery will be so that we can complete the remainder of Cohort 4 – those over 70. Please be patient; we will contact those who are next on the priority list as soon as we receive further vaccine.
Unity Health
Unity Health is making great progress with the Covid vaccination delivery. Starting before Christmas, we have continued to receive regular supplies of vaccine. Initially we received the Pfizer vaccine but recently we have received only the AstraZeneca vaccine.
We have now vaccinated the following cohorts:
All our over 80 year olds except those who cannot have it, for some reason, or have declined or are housebound
All our care home residents and a number of care home staff, care home residents for 8 care homes which are under the care of other practices but who did not have sufficient vaccine/staff to vaccinate their residents. This was in response to a national call for practices to provide ‘mutual support’ to try to vaccinate this group who are extremely vulnerable to contracting Covid 19.We have invited all our 75-79 years olds via text. We have vaccinated over 85% or this cohort and are now calling those either without mobile phones or who didn’t respond to the initial text. We have texted all our patients asking them to self-identify as social care or healthcare workers. Although vaccination should be arranged through their employer, we may be able to vaccinate them more quickly and are happy to do so since they are in the two highest priority cohorts for the vaccine and we have invited these patients. For this week’s clinic we have invited all our clinically extremely vulnerable ‘shielding’ patients..
If we have any spare appointments/vaccine we will now start vaccinating our over 70 year olds. This is the four top priority cohorts that are the national priority groups. We have also started to vaccinate our housebound patients and plan to complete most of these patients this week/early next week.
Nationally second doses are being planned for 12 weeks after the first dose; we are still waiting for further information on how the recall process will work.
We have received tremendous support from volunteers to help us to run the clinics; marshalling traffic, managing the queue and providing a friendly, cheerful welcome and support for our patients.
Meadowcroft Care Home
Rachel Greenhough, Home Manager at Meadowcroft Care Home reported that vaccinations at OSJCT Meadowcroft have started to take place; 60% of staff and 70% of residents have already been vaccinated and arrangements are being made to quickly access vaccine for those unable to be vaccinated on the first round.
It is important that, even once vaccinated, everyone continues to wear a mask, practice good hand hygiene and observe social distancing to help drive infection rates down whilst we continue to roll out the vaccination programme. Stay safe. Protect the NHS. Save Lives.
