A large scale vaccination centre for Thanet has been earmarked for opening at the end of February.
Plans for the hub were first revealed at a county council meeting in January where Wilf Williams, Accountable Officer for NHS Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said the site would be set up at a shopping centre – assumed to be Westwood Cross.
Kent’s large scale sites are predicted to be able to give 20,000 vaccines per week. Mobile and outreach services for vaccinations will also be used.
South Thanet MP Craig Mackinlay says he lobbied for the centre. In his weekly briefing the MP said: “I spent much of last week in negotiations with various NHS bodies and a local property owner to secure a vaccination hub for Thanet; one that I had identified and made tentative approaches about some weeks ago as ideal to serve East Kent.
“I attended a site meeting last week. I am pleased to announce that the site that I identified has been secured. The formal announcement should be made this week so I will honour confidences and not disclose it here but I am delighted to have played a key part in getting the parties together and cutting through the painful processes which can allow good ideas to falter. I hope the community will be similarly pleased once this superb site has been formally announced.
“Numbers of new infections locally are falling dramatically. The time lag between infection, possible need for hospitalisation and premature death should show itself across these devastating numbers very shortly.
“As Parliamentarians, the decision as to how to unwind the damaging restrictions to normal life will fall to us. The time for those debates is rapidly approaching and I can only reiterate once more that once the vaccination programme has covered the most vulnerable there should be a rapid unwinding of lockdown measures as the societal cost, health cost and economic cost is becoming incalculable.”
The current covid positive rate for Thanet stands at 234.6 per 100,000 as of January 30. There have been 302 positive cases in the last seven days, a fall of 33% on the preceding seven days. The national rate is currently 242.8 per 100,000.
Some 10,490,487 people across the UK have now received the first dose and 501,957 have received both doses of either the Pfizer or the AstraZeneca vaccinations.
Kent and Medway NHS has opened two large-scale vaccination centres, with a third set to open from February 8 and Thanet in planning for the final week of February. The potential for further sites to support the wider roll out of the vaccination programme is being reviewed.
Large scale sites
Folkestone – Folca building (the former Debenhams building)
Gravesend – The Woodville (Woodville Halls)
Tonbridge – Angel Centre (from 8 February)
Thanet – details to follow
Kent and Medway NHS says: “To use these centres you must have an appointment. People in the priority groups will receive a letter from the NHS inviting you to book.
“If you have a booking already arranged with a GP service when you get the national letter; please keep your original appointment with the GP service. This will help us manage supplies effectively and keep slots free for other people.”
Kent and Medway vaccines given:
279,363
First dose
- over 80 years 84,547 (86.3%)
- 75-79 years 50,991 (74.3%)
- 70-74 years 27,495 (27.1%)
- under 70 years 93,726
Second dose
- over 80 years 16,083 (16.4%)
- 75-79 years 256 (0.4%)
- 70-74 years 185 (0.2%)
- under 70 years 6,080
Up to 31 January 2021
GP vaccination hubs
| Minster Surgery | Westgate Surgery, Minster Surgery, St Peter’s Surgery, Birchington Medical Practice, Broadstairs Medical Practice, Ash Surgery |
| Mocketts Wood | The Limes Medical Centre, Northdown Surgery, Bethesda Medical Centre, Mocketts Wood Surgery |
| Montefiore Centre | The Grange Medical Practice, Summerhill Surgery, Dashwood Medical Centre, East Cliff Practice, Newington Road Surgery |
Thank goodness for Craig Mackinlay and his single handed efforts to get a vaccination centre open in East Kent?
Where would we be without him?
You are being ironic aren’t you Phyllis!
You serious? When I wrote to him with some issues and questions he replied with in less than 24hrs. In his reply he told me that he/the Government were very busy. Obviously that must be the reason he did not answer a single question that I put to him or address any of the issues I raised.
they all do it ignorant lot of duffers
We have not got it yet.I really hope so , so we can kill this vaccine , with antibodies working against it .Then build our immunity .
Fantastic news!
Maybe, possibly, earmarked, could be Westwood Cross? What is wrong with saying exactly how many have been vaccinated in each District, and where new sites will be set up and when?
This is smoke and mirrors with headline grabbing sound bites of boosterism.
Nationally, it is going well, but it is a long haul,10m vaccinated, well done. Now only 120m to go.
Craig did not say that 900 of his constituents in sandwich are being vaccinated in Broadstairs, because the CCG has muffed up Dover District, which still has only 1 centre and 1 small pharmacy giving jabs.
I do hope he is not one of the Tory MP’s wanting to end lockdown early on, because in parts of east Kent, vaccination is an incomplete process.
Plenty of room in Debenhams.
CcG asleep for a year,as if thanet didn’t exist yet highest over 60s in county. Where have they been?
I’m no Tory but without CM nothing would have been set up…
Who’s CcG?
Clinical Commissioning Group
This IS great news. Especially looking ahead to Phase 2. A jab site takes pressure off our vital GP hubs and resources and enables a longer term approach and better ability to manage staffing requirements as a project.
Keep going, let’s jab all over 18’s ASAP.
Thanks to Craig Mackinlay for the lighter evenings as well………..or was that the brexit benefit ?
The really optimistic news is that if infection rates continue to fall at the present rate, CV will be well and truly trampled with two weeks. Could be even better if the vaccine is effective in stopping transmission.
Unless some nutter comes along (just as they did last year) an opens everything up again.
Any ideas why people returning to the UK won’t be quarantined for another 10 days, and then only if tthey’re coming from a “hot spot” country where mutations are known.
Utterly crackers!
Couldn’t understand this either and how come there are 2000people flying in and out of UK every day according to Breakfast News?
This story has been announced how many times ? 3 is it? If we vaccinated as half as quickly as vaccination centres are announced, we would be in clover.
Why do we have to big up what is a good news story? After all the miss steps and fake promises of the past, someone broke into the treasury and funded the vaccine production. Great! But let us not forget they spent £22 Billion on Test, Track + Trace. You could literally pave the streets of Thanet in gold, with that amount of cash, yet what do we have for our money? A failed system.
I wish we would hear honest statements of affairs and not news management and propaganda.
We have a real problem with vaccine refusers. Why are they refusing? Because they have no trust in Govt and you can see why.
Vaccinations are doing well, let’s not ruin it by stupid secrecy, designed only to save the blushes of the technocrats who are not up to the job.
My first vacination site was Debenhams in Folkstone, what a mess. Loads of elderly and infirm people in wheelchairs, walking aids of all types and no protection from the biting wind and rain thundering past the site. No toilets at all, and I shuffled around like everybody for over an hour outside. Checked twice as to why I was there!!! Once we were inside, I was asked if my stick was enough to hold me up, no I took my tramadol as soon as I could get a seat for a few seconds rest, the first in over an hour. At one point we were asked to bunch up so more people could get in from the weather. As for driving home to Thanet in the pitch black. I will not be going back to Folkstone!!! Why the delay and secrecy about opening a centre in Thanet?
Thank God my husband and myself had our vaccinations at St Peter’s Church hall. No fuss quick safe and very professional. Thank you so much team for making our visit stress free
I agree my wife and myself had a hassle free time very professional at St Peters Village Centre thank you to all the staff
Sorry for your experience MR. Williams but my experience was totally different at Folkstone. walked straight in the front door was greeted, have you an appointment, next stage sanitised the hands seats where available at points around the line, registered then had the injection. all staff where reassuring and polite. Time from front door to exit 35mins This was at 1pm 1st Feb.
+1
I’ve just been and it was delightful. No queues, plenty of staff, really well organised.
They did say it had been a bit chaotic a few days earlier with many older and infirm folk attending.
These are rushed-to-the market experimental vaccines – although some doctors agree that the mNRA one is gene therapy which has never been used before on humans. Legal liability fo any vaccine damage is waived for the drugs companies involved. Has nobody heard of maintaining a good immune system or looked at the dangers of vaccinating immune compromised people – as it says in the vaccine guidance for medical professionals. Dr Vernon Coleman ended up crying in one of his regular videos this week at the insanity of it all and he is a well-known, respected doctor and author with many years experience – now censored as free speech is very tellingly dead on vaccine matters. At least look at the literature which people are supposed to be provided with prior to the jab with the list of ingredients and warnings etc. And what happens every year from now on in? A lock-down vaccine jabbed world for ever and ever and ever?? Some may chose this, but many many millions won’t and investigations into all of this will be very revealing in the future.
He has been discredited by many senior scientists/medics & academics who can counter his assertions soundly
To George Nokes and similar like-minded moaners, just be grateful that a vaccine ( or vaccines ) have been developed so quickly in the UK and other countries have produced likewise. We should all be grateful that it is not Jeremy Corbyn or the current Labour Goverment in charge of trying to control this pandemic and keep the country functioning at the same time….it is beyond comprehension.
Your comments about Jeremy Corbyn and a Labour government are completely off-beam.
Under this Tory government the UK has the worst Covid death rate in the world.
Lockdown was too late in February.
I would not like to be in
Boris Johnson’s shoes.
Under this Tory government, more civilians have died due to C19 than died in WW2.
And they still won’t close our borders to stop new variants coming in.
Johnson et al are responsible for the world’s worse death rate & the NHS workers {& I know many} have been hung out to dry. They are exhausted & @ 900 of them have died from Covid. What a crazy suggestion to blame an Independent back bencher when it is Tories who wrought chaos, death & confusion on our nation
Thankyou for your concerns.
I’ve read the literature and come to the conclusion that Covid vaccines are safer than taking ibuprofen.
I understand that upwards of 10,000,000 people have received ay least one dose in the UK. I don’t see any mention of tens of thousands of gravely ill people.
As for the “censored” works of Dr Colman, has website is freely accessible:
https://www.vernoncoleman.com/
Yea thank god for craig McKinley its not like he gets 60 odd thousand pounds a year just to sit on his arse
All day!
How about a drive through centre at Manston or use one of the empty hangers.
Possibly one of the factors is that potential “customers” might not have a car, so the centre would need to be near a bus route or station.
Great news, but note the key comment… “by the end of the month”. Granted getting the site kitted out and medics in place needs time, but still not going to be open for a couple of weeks. Cavalry is on the horizon, stay bunkered down a little longer.
What sage group are being done now