The vaccination programme against Covid-19 starts to be delivered by GP practices across England this week, with Wareham Hospital expected to be Purbeck’s local hub.
The Purbeck Primary Care Network, which consists of Swanage Medical Practice, Corfe Castle Surgery, Wareham Surgery, Bere Regis Surgery, Sandford Surgery and The Wellbridge Practice, is coordinating the vaccine rollout locally.
To minimise disruption to the surgeries across Purbeck, residents are expected to be directed by their GPs to Wareham Hospital to get the jab.
“One site suitable for large scale vaccinations”
In a letter to patients, Swanage Medical Practice’s senior partner, Dr Jason Clark said:
“A late Christmas present does seem to be looming in terms of the Covid vaccination…The Purbeck Primary Care Network of which we are part, has been asked to coordinate the local delivery and nominate one site suitable for large scale vaccinations.
“In order to enable normal practice activity to continue, the Wareham Hospital site has been chosen for this; delivery to the housebound and nursing homes will also be enabled. More local delivery will be provided if possible.
“As soon as we are given details of availability, appropriate patients will be contacted to book an appointment. This may be by letter, phone or text.”
One of the first people to receive the Covid-19 jab in Dorset
Don’t call us, we’ll call you
Residents are being asked not to proactively contact their local GPs, as the medical practices will contact their patients in strict priority order. Phoning the surgery will only add to the workload of staff, so the clear message is ‘don’t call us, we’ll call you’.
Purbeck Primary Care Network posted on social media:
“The Covid-19 vaccine is imminent. We have some very busy bees planning our delivery for all of Purbeck. You will be invited when it’s your turn, so please do not call your GP surgery or the NHS. Please be patient and keep safe in the meantime.”
Those who will be offered the vaccine in order of priority
- Residents in a care home for older adults and their carers
- All those 80 years of age and over and frontline health and social care workers
- All those 75 years of age and over
- All those 70 years of age and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals (not including pregnant women and those under 18 years of age)
- All those 65 years of age and over
- All individuals aged 16 years to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality
- All those 60 years of age and over
- All those 55 years of age and over
- All those 50 years of age and over
Some clinics in England will start this afternoon
Across England, hundreds of local vaccination services run by family doctors and their teams will open this week, with many taking delivery of the vaccine today, Monday 14th December 2020. Some clinics will start this afternoon with the majority starting on Tuesday 15th December 2020.
Chair of the Royal College of GPs, Professor Martin Marshall said:
“GPs and our teams are about to embark on an enormous challenge, delivering the Covid-19 vaccination programme in the community, whilst also delivering the expanded flu vaccine programme and the usual care and services our patients rely on us for.
“There are also logistical challenges but general practice has an excellent track record of delivering mass vaccination programmes, and we want to use this experience to help protect people from Covid-19 and start getting life back to normal again.
“We won’t be vaccinating everyone all at once – it will be a relatively small number at first – but as long as there is supply, GPs and our teams at selected sites will start vaccinating people this week, starting with our most vulnerable patients.
“Patients will be contacted and invited for vaccination – we would urge them not to contact their practice enquiring about vaccination, we will contact them.”
