Vaccination team at Saga on the move to former shop unit in Westwood

The Thanet GP hub team with site lead Dr Peshen (standing, in blue)

The GP covid vaccination hub at the Saga site in Ramsgate will move to a former shop unit at Westwood next month.

The hub has been operating from Saga since March after it moved from St Peter’s Church Hall.

The last session runs at Saga on January 13 and then reopens at the Westwood unit between Currys/PC World and Wickes on January 15.

The site was visited this month by Prime Minister Boris Johnson as part of the drive to get people to have their booster jabs. He described it as one of the best centres he had seen.

An NHS Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group spokesperson said: “Thanet vaccination centre has been enormously successful with more than 200,000 vaccinations given in 12 months, it was also recently visited by the Prime Minister who commented on its outstanding success helping to protect people in the local area.

“The team is moving a short distance to the former (PC World) store  in Westwood (used prior to the Currys/PC World shared unit which is still open and trading) , where it will continue to offer vaccines to the people of Thanet and east Kent.

“The move takes place on Saturday, 15 January. The last day in the Saga building will be 13 January. There isn’t any planned downtime. The new site will still be known as Thanet vaccination centre.

“In the meantime, there are plenty of places in Kent and Medway to be vaccinated – you can find a full list here: https://www.kentandmedwayccg.nhs.uk/your-health/coronavirus/covid19vaccine.’’

The PM with ‘Doc’ Atherton from the NHS (CARE) PCN Pharmacy & Medicines Team at Saga

‘Doc’ Atherton, who is part of the team working at Saga, said: “We’re really excited for the forthcoming move to the Westwood site. It’ll sound strange going forward calling us the Thanet Vaccination Centre as opposed to Saga but obviously, we don’t want to be confusing patients.

“We would like to thank Saga for the use of their site in making a huge difference here in Thanet. We will keep patients fully up to date too via The Isle of Thanet News and, of course, Academy FM will also continue to keep everyone updated with what goes on.

“We’ve a big task ahead but we would like to thank everyone for their continued support in what we do. From January next week we will be reverting to our usual opening times of Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 8am to 5:30pm and I am also pleased to say that we will not have any downtime either as our last day at Saga is Thursday 13th January and our first day at the new site will be Saturday 15th January.”

Internal works to convert the unit interior are currently underway.

The Saga site at Ramsgate is open today for walk-ins until 8pm and tomorrow (New Year’s Eve) open from 8am until 2pm.

26 Comments

    • It’s the old Currys unit where it was before it moved in alongside PC World. I’ve changed the article so it is clearer as it was a bit confusing. (Further research, it was PC World not Currys prior to both brands sharing a unit)

  1. They are having to move due to apparently the contract being only made for a year with Saga .
    Ideal location – still very much in demand – just usual shortsighted incompetent planning / contract making
    Ask this “Doc” Atherton – he’s always in the picture

    • Are they incapable of renegotiation? Hard to believe it has been let to somebody else. Or is it that they know they have hit jab peak & with the Omicron variant meaning 70% less people having to go into hospital & less deaths that they know it will be very hard to convince people to keep getting jabbed over & over for no logical reason & thus only need a smaller building for a few months?

  2. Or maybe sceptical Steve there is another reason they have to leave the Saga building. The old Currys shop is also large. The important thing is that we still have a centre for vaccinations with good parking facilities.
    The Covid vaccines are not intended to offer assurance that you won’t get Covid – they are to minimise the effects of this dreadful virus so that you don’t become chronically ill and need hospitilisation.

      • There’s a 70% reduction in hospitalisation. But that number is a *proportion* of the total infected.
        Omicron is far far more infectious than any other mutant (so far). Many many more people will get infected. 70% of a huge number is still a huge number.
        Glad, as always, to have helped with your misunderstanding.

    • It will be interesting to see how they insist on future jabs & lockdowns with Omicron meaning 70% less people going into hospital, even further falling deaths etc. Sadly most of the public appear to be so brainwashed into believing the government/BBC/ITV/Sky headlines fed to them by the government & addicted to needles being struck in them every five minutes, while happily giving up their basic rights even when fully jabbed that they can tell them anything & have them accept it.

  3. No excuse now for not being vaccinated if any non vac person goes to hospital with covid they should be charged for the treatment.

    • Any vaccinated person that goes to hospital with Covid also needs to be charged for the treatment then. Also charge them for wasting the jabs with insufficient antibodies.

    • Incredibly stupid comment Fred.

      If you want to go down that route, then you would also need to charge anyone who has issues arising from there lifestyle choices, so anyone that has any issues caused by drinking, smoking, is overweight or obese, drug use, sporting activities, even gardening. As all would be avoidable by not partaking in the lifestyle choice or activity.

      Not to mention the fact that most who end up in hospital with covid (vaccinated or not) have underlying health conditions that are caused by some of the above lifestyle choices, being overweight is the main one.

  4. I have had enough negative people saying things it’s causing more harm than good eg Dave, it be easier for us in a bus to get there as expect that an excuse non vaccination people will say. Yes it’s tough time but let’s try see something bright ahead…..

    • Bring in vaccination passports.
      If you’re eligible, been offered, but turned down your vaccines and boosters, then you’re a danger to the rest of us, and shouldn’t be allowed out.

  5. The non vaxers that sre csusing the problems in the nhs should be ashamed of themselves. I expect they also think the world is flat

  6. The move to the old Currys shop makes sense as it’s easier to get to and is on the main bus route the loop for those who don’t own a car or don’t drive instead of being ripped off by minicab drivers.

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