Updated Monday 15th February 2021
The UK has reached the significant milestone of offering the first COVID vaccination to all patients in the first four priority groups. This represents all people aged 70+ years and those who are considered to be clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) if they were to contract Covid-19.
Any of our patients in these four groups who haven’t been vaccinated should contact the practice as soon as possible to organise an appointment.
NHSE have announced some significant changes to the vaccination rollout programme that will affect patients in cohorts 5-9.
From 15th February the GP-led centres ( ie Southport Centre for Health and Well-being, Houghton St) will focus on priority group 6 (which is people aged 16-64 years with underlying health conditions). The pharmacy-led vaccination centres eg Hirshmans/Boots will focus on the age specific groups (5,7,8 and 9).
The definition of each of the priority groups has recently been updated on the gov.uk website and now includes more detail on what constitutes as a underlying heath condition.
There are some important things to remember about this change in the delivery programme.
- Until now the GP centres and the pharmacy-led centres have been inviting the same groups of people who could choose to use the 119 national booking service to find a local centre with availability or wait for their GP surgery to invite them.
- For this next phase we will each be inviting different groups of patients.
- If you have an underlying health condition that is included in the government definition then it will be your GP that will invite you. If you are in a priority group based on your age then you will access the vaccination clinics via the 119 or on-line booking service.
- The definition of an underlying health condition is NOT the same as the ‘at-risk’ group for the flu vaccination programme so don’t assume you will be in priority group 6 just because you received a free flu-jab last autumn.
Some areas of the definition require additional clarification. Please refer to the notes at the bottom of this page for more details on asthma, adult carers and other groups.
Remember, people in group 6 will only be called by their GP surgery - unless they also fall into an age category being invited by letter from NHS England. It seems that priority group 5 – people aged between 65 and 69 are currently receiving those letters and we have no sight at all of when that will move onto group 7 and people aged under 65.
The surgery will invite people in group 6 either by SMS if we have a mobile phone number on record for you or by a phone call. If we can’t contact you by either method we will then deliver a letter to their home address. As with earlier groups we will operate robust safety netting procedures to ensure that people aren’t forgotten about.
Priority Group 6 is by far the largest and most complex of the remaining patient groups.
The Marshside Surgery has approx. 260 patients in this group. Our allocation from each 3-day cycle of Pfizer vaccines is approx. 40 vaccines so it is clear that this group will take a while to get through.
The throughput at a Pfizer clinic is much slower than a clinic delivering the Astra Zeneca vaccine because of the need to observe all patients for 15 minutes after their vaccination. The GP-led centres have no influence over which type of vaccine is delivered from the central supply.
The request for patients not to call the surgery to ask about when they will receive their vaccine is more important than ever as we enter this next important phase of the roll-out. Some of the rules for eligibility are complex and there is a real danger of our resources being overwhelmed by too many phone calls seeking clarification.
We know that waiting for the vaccine can be a very anxious time but we ask our patients to support us as we do this work at the same time as running our normal services.
We would encourage everyone who can to make full use of the government website and the on-line resources provided by organisations who support people with different conditions.
Asthma.
The definition of underlying health condition includes “those with asthma that requires continuous or repeated use of systemic steroids or with previous exacerbations requiring hospital admission”.
This guidance has since been clarified and the following was published on the Asthma UK Twitter account on Feb 13th
“If you have ever had an emergency hospital admission for your asthma, or ever been prescribed three courses of steroid tablets in a three-month period”
Adult Carers.
Those who are eligible for a carer’s allowance, or those who are the sole or primary carer of an elderly or disabled person who is at increased risk of COVID-19 mortality and therefore clinically vulnerable.
More information is expected from NHS England on February 15th around how people in this group will be identified. It is anticipated that the local authority will play a key role in this.
We will update our website as soon as information is released.
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Health and Social Care Professionals
The government has instructed all NHS Trusts to have vaccination hubs running from mid-January. People working in health and social care will be directed to these hubs for their vaccination.
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Please visit our dedicated page to find out more information about local COVID vaccination clinics.
We are experiencing an unprecedented volume of calls into the surgery from patients understandably wanting to know when they will be vaccinated. Please be advised that we will contact patients either by phone call or SMS when we are able to invite you for your vaccination. We are asking patients if possible not to contact the surgery regarding this as our resources are stretched by running the vaccination programme alongside normal surgery services and we are also impacted by sickness and self-isolation.
See the NHS website for more information on the national roll-out of the vaccination programme
