Hundreds of local covid vaccination services run by family doctors and their teams will open across England this week.
Practices in more than 100 parts of the country are taking delivery of the vaccine today (December 14), with some kicking off their clinics this afternoon and the majority starting on Tuesday.
This includes Montefiore Medical Centre in Ramsgate – from Thursday- and it is understood it is one of three GP surgeries in Thanet which will offer the vaccination.
Broadstairs Medical Practice and the other surgeries in the its PCN Network, which are Minster, Birchington, St Peters, Ash and Westgate Surgery, will be in the first wave of the roll out. The surgeries are working together and will be providing the vaccine from Minster Surgery from Tuesday, December 15 to Thursday, December 17 according to the Broadstairs Medical Practice website.
A full list is expected to be confirmed tomorrow.
Nurses, paramedics, pharmacists and other NHS staff will work alongside GPs to vaccinate those aged 80 and over, as well as care home workers and residents, identified as priority groups for the life-saving vaccine.
Along with other countries in the UK, residents of care homes in England will also receive their first vaccine later this week after distributors finalise new, stringent processes to ensure safe delivery of the PfizerBioNTech vaccine.
Here’s our Regional Chief Nurse Duncan Burton @duncan_CNSE talking about the roll out of the Covid vaccine and an important message for patients in the South East. #CovidVaccine #vaccine pic.twitter.com/pXSotX3jDA
— NHS South East (@NHSsoutheast) December 14, 2020
Like hospital staff last week, practice teams are working rapidly to redesign their sites and put in place safe processes to meet the tough logistical challenges of offering the vaccination.
The NHS will contact people in the priority groups when it is their turn to receive the vaccine.
Dr Nikki Kanani, practising GP and NHS Director of Primary Care, said: “GPs, nurses, pharmacists and other primary care staff are eager to play their part in protecting people against coronavirus.
“This is the greatest vaccination programme ever undertaken by the NHS and, to help vaccinate people safely we will be working with local communities to deliver it in convenient and familiar settings.
“As a GP I am proud to be part of this huge national effort to protect our patients against the virus and I would urge the public to come forward when they are called up for the vaccine.”
The community sites build on the work of the scores of hospital hubs which have already started vaccinating.
The latest phase of the vaccine roll-out is being co-ordinated by GP-led primary care networks with more practices and community pharmacies in other parts of England joining on a phased basis during December and in the coming months.
Patients will be contacted and invited for vaccination – people do not need to contact their practice enquiring about vaccination.
