BOLTON: Health workers, care home residents and staff should have been offered Covid vaccination by end of January say health chiefs

A board meeting of Bolton’s clinical commissioning group heard medics and support staff are working ‘around the clock’ to ramp up the number of injections given.

The meeting heard that of the priority groups currently eligible for vaccination in Bolton there are 12.360 over-80s, 1,456 care home residents, 10,000 health and social care workers, 3,799 care home staff and 5,658 home care workers.

Around 3,400 vaccinations, the vast majority to over-80s, have already been administered at centres at Tonge Moor and Lever Chambers and more centres will begin next week.

The first doses of the second Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine have arrived in Bolton and will begin to be used on Tuesday, January 12.

Dr Helen Wall, who is leading the Bolton COVID-19 vaccination programme gave an update on the roll out to board members.

She said: ” “I am absolutely committed to to getting every single person in Bolton who is eligible and wants it vaccinated.

“We are working around the clock, day and night, weekdays and weekends.

“It is literally 24/7 to get everybody vaccinated but we ask people to bear with us as this is very much dependent on vaccine supply and distribution.”

Dr Wall said more vaccination sites would go live next week.

She said: “It’s expected that we will get both vaccines delivered to all the sites in the town.

“We are calling people in for vaccination at very short notice.

“Yesterday we called patients in at an hour’s notice because we realised we had doses available.

“We want to get the message out to the population not to be alarmed if they haven’t been called yet.

“I think there’s a bit of anxiety out there that perhaps their neighbour or relative has been called and they’re in the same priority group but it’s having to be rolled out in phases across the town and we’re not always getting enough to vaccinate every single person in that area at once but it’s coming in every few days now as sites go live.

“The other sites that will be taking place in the coming  weeks are Lever Chambers who will be continuing for patients in Rumworth, Central Bolton, Farnworth and Kearsley, Breightmet Health Centre will be vaccinating people

from Breightmet and Little Lever, Peterhouse Surgery in Westhoughton for people in Westhoughton and Blackrod, Waters Meeting Health centre for people from the Halliwell area plus those registered at the Bolton Community Practice in Horwich.

“Avondale Health Centre will vaccinate people from the Chorley Old Road area.

“We’re working with NHS England to confirm the site in Horwich which we expect will be as soon as next week.

“I think there is a lot of understandable concern in Horwich because they haven’t heard much up to this point but we’d like to reassure Horwich residents that we’re doing everything we can to make these arrangements

and we will inform them of the date of vaccinations when we get that confirmation.

“Each site has undergone rigorous NHS England checks.”

Dr Andrew Hill, from Turton primary care network gave feedback from the clinic at Tonge Moor Health Centre, the first location in the town to administer jabs.

He said: “We were chosen as we have the largest number of over-80s in the Bolton area.

” The clinics run from 8am until 8pm.

“It’s not like a normal flu clinic as there was a need for social distancing to keep people safe and often the over-80s have mobility problems.

“It was a huge success with a massive amount of positive feedback from patients

“At Tonge Moor we’ve already delivered just short of 2,400 doses, the overwhelming majority have been over-80 and we’ve done half our care home residents and staff and practically all our primary care staff and pharmacists.

“We’ve learned huge amounts during this process and shared that with other primary care networks in Bolton.

“We’ve got a fridge now with 400 Astra Zeneca vaccines to give next Tuesday and another 300 being delivered on Wednesday so we plan to use them next week.”

Dr Stephen Liversedge gave a report on the first care home vaccinations, which took place on December 30 at the Old Vicarage in Astley Bridge.

He said: “The Old Vicarage vaccination went very smoothly.

“There was some initial apprehension about vaccination from both the residents and the staff when I was discussing the possibility but I  could give reassurance about how smoothly vaccination was going at Tonge Moor and in fact everyone consented to be vaccinated.

“We were helped out by Dr Kevin Jones, a retired consultant from the hospital as a volunteer vaccinator which was much appreciated.

“I’ve checked in twice with them to see if there were any side effects or issues arising from being vaccinated and there’s been none at all.”

Lay member Alan Stephenson asked about how the vaccine would be delivered to housebound residents.

Dr Wall, said: “The housebound are one of our priority groups and we are committed to getting them vaccinated.

“We have to observe them for 15 minutes afterwards and go in as a two so it’s going to be very time and labour intensive to do.”

Chief executive of Bolton Primary Care Trust, Su Long spoke about some of the planning and logistical issues the trust faced.

She said: “”We are commonly asked for forward programme of vaccinations but what is clear that each vaccination site once authorised receives a seven day notice of vaccine delivery so we are only ever working one week in advance.

“So that’s why we haven’t given a forward timetable or programme and it’s only because on Thursday night that we got an email confirming deliveries that we could announce the next phase

“People will not necessarily be offered a vaccine at their local practice, these primary care networks are groups of practices.

“These are carefully thought through nominated sites where people will be invited.

“The reason for these for these single sites is for the really careful handling of the vaccine and the logistics required.

“The government has said everyone will be able to get a vaccine within 10 miles of their home.

“We are more than meeting that in Bolton.

She added that there had been positive feedback about vaccinations.

She said: “We have had a huge number of positive comments from those who have used the service whether that being the person being vaccinated or their son or daughter who had brought them along.

“Comments on how well organised the vaccination process was but also the teams of volunteers in the car parks helping them and showing the way.”