| NHS now inviting those aged 44+ to have their vaccination People aged 44 are the latest age group to be invited to book their Covid-19 jab, from today. Around half a million 44-year olds will receive a text inviting them to get their jab through the national booking service. This comes alongside the latest figures that show that more than two thirds of people aged 45 to 49 have now received their first vaccination. The decision to move to people aged 40-43 will be set out in the coming days with the NHS vaccinating in line with JCVI advice and as supplies allow. As with previous age groups, those who prefer to wait to receive an invitation from their local GP service are able to do so. Surrey Heartlands vaccination programme – some numbers As at Sunday (18-Apr), Surrey Heartlands had delivered around 680,000 vaccines via local GP sites, Hospital Hubs, Community Pharmacies and the Vaccination Centre at Epsom Racecourse. Of these around 160,000 are second doses. Overall Surrey Heartlands continues to perform well and in many areas is exceeding the national average. For example, for people aged over 55 uptake of first doses exceeds 80% and is almost 100% for those aged 75-79. For second doses, the story shows a similar picture for most age groups. Second doses Second doses are routinely offered around 11 weeks from the first dose being given. A Local GP-led vaccination site will contact individuals by text or by telephone to arrange an appointment to receive a second dose. In exceptional cases some people will be invited earlier. Please don’t contact the CCG or your GP practice about your 2nd dose appointment unless you’ve not been contacted by the 11th week. Please be patient. If you do need to contact us, details are available on our website: www.surreyheartlandsccg.nhs.uk or via our vaccination enquiry line 0300 561 2500 (Monday-Friday 9.00 am – 4.00 pm). Those who booked via the National Booking System will have made their second appointment at the time of booking. Frequently asked questions (FAQs) |
| You can find a comprehensive set of FAQs on the local programme on our website here. |
| Useful links FAQs NHS.UK Covid-19 vaccine GOV.UK Covid-19 vaccination programme Data release Information on priority groups |
Tag Archives: Vaccination
Haslemere Vaccination Update
Vaccinations started this morning at St Christopher’s Church. All is running smoothly. I’m liaising with Surrey County Council and Waverley Borough Council to ensure there is sufficient parking for NHS staff and for those being vaccinated who need to park close to the church.
Dedicated parking for NHS staff has been set aside in the Wey Hill Fairground carpark. The car park is busy with workers from the nearby construction site so, more spaces will be found in Weydown Road/Fairground short stay if needed.
Please note, the Covid testing centre has been moved from Weydown Road car park to Godalming tomorrow, Fri Feb 26- Sat Feb 27th to make space.
I have agreed with the NHS team that from March 8th when schools re-open. vaccinations will start later-at 9.20am until 5pm- to reduce morning traffic congestion around St Christopher’s Green/Wey Hill as much as possible.
The plan is for 200 vaccines/day at St Christopher’s, with a rolling program of vaccinations 3 days/week to deliver 200,000 Covid vaccines to cohort 6 over the next few weeks.
Anyone that received first Pfizer jab in December will have their 2nd jab at GLive where the space and facilities are better suited to the Pfizer health requirements. St Christopher’s in Haslemere will only be giving AstraZeneca jabs.
Surrey Heartlands Covid-19 Vaccination Programme Partner Update
I received this update yesterday from Surrey Heartlands:
Bad weather update
Snow and flood warnings are in place for parts of Surrey this weekend (6/7 February). Our Covid-19 vaccination services are currently expected to run as normal but if this changes we’ll share any updates on our website here. In case of adverse weather, we would ask people to travel safely and if they can’t attend, please don’t worry, we’ll be in touch to reschedule. For those attending, we would like to remind you (just in case of any queuing although this will be kept to a minimum) to:
- Dress warmly
- Try to arrive on time but not early
- If you are coming by car and are early, please stay in your car until close to your appointment time
- Bring a warm drink in a flask
Latest data
The latest published data here shows we have now delivered a total of 148,294 first dose vaccinations across Surrey Heartlands (up to 31 January). Our latest infographic below shows more detail; the graphic is also available on our website here.
In conversation with Dr Sally Johnson
Dr Sally Johnson, GP and clinical lead for our vaccination programme, answers lots of common questions and myth busts in this latest video which you can watch here. (Subtitles can be activated by clicking on the CC button along the bottom row of the video).
Latest FAQs
You can find a comprehensive set of FAQs on the local programme on our website here. In the meantime, we will regularly publish the answers to some of the most common/latest questions here.
How are you choosing who to vaccinate when?
We are currently offering the COVID-19 vaccine to people in JCVI priority groups 1 to 4. We are hoping to complete these priority groups by the middle of February. These include:
- all those 80 years of age and over
- we are proactively contacting anyone who has not yet been vaccinated by telephoning and writing to them. We are reviewing all GP lists to ensure we have not missed anyone
- 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.
- People with the following conditions are automatically deemed clinically extremely vulnerable:
- solid organ transplant recipients
- people with specific cancers
- people with cancer who are undergoing active chemotherapy
- people with lung cancer who are undergoing radical radiotherapy
- people with cancers of the blood or bone marrow such as leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma who are at any stage of treatment
- people having immunotherapy or other continuing antibody treatments for cancer
- people having other targeted cancer treatments that can affect the immune system, such as protein kinase inhibitors or PARP inhibitors
- people who have had bone marrow or stem cell transplants in the last 6 months or who are still taking immunosuppression drugs
- people with severe respiratory conditions including all cystic fibrosis, severe asthma and severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
- people with rare diseases that significantly increase the risk of infections (such as severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), homozygous sickle cell disease)
- people on immunosuppression therapies sufficient to significantly increase risk of infection
- problems with your spleen, for example splenectomy (having your spleen removed)
- adults with Down’s Syndrome
- adults on dialysis or with chronic kidney disease (stage 5)
- women who are pregnant with significant heart disease, congenital or acquired
- other people who have also been classed as clinically extremely vulnerable, based on clinical judgement and an assessment of their needs. GPs and hospital clinicians have been provided with guidance to support these decisions
- If someone considers themselves to be clinically extremely vulnerable but their clinical condition is not included in the list above, they are advised to contact their GP or specialist to discuss.
- People with the following conditions are automatically deemed clinically extremely vulnerable:
Useful links
Volunteers for Guildford & Waverley Covid-19 Vaccination Centres
Several people have asked about volunteering at vaccination centres. Here is a response that I have received:
If people want to register to volunteer for marshalling, etc., at the Guildford & Waverley Covid-19 Vaccination Centres, they can go to the Voluntary Action South West Surrey website and there will be a link generated when it’s active, but there is nothing available at the moment because the first month of shifts/roles has been filled. So, the advice is to keep checking! Once open again, the different roles can be accessed by going to our website (https://voluntaryactionsws.org.uk/), clicking on “View local volunteering opportunities” and scrolling down to ‘NHS Volunteers’ and clicking into it.
Covid-19 Vaccination Programme – Briefing Update from Surrey Heartlands
I received this update from Surrey Heartlands Health and Care Partnership:
Our vaccination programme scaled up considerably this week with the launch of our large vaccination centre at Epsom Racecourse on Monday (11 January). This site is also shared with some of our GP-led vaccination services. It means significantly more people can be vaccinated and is initially focusing on people over 80 years of age and health and care workers.
Secretary of State for Health and Care, Matt Hancock and Professor Stephen Powis, National Medical Director also visited the launch to hear from staff and patients about the progress being made. National, regional and local media followed the action and you can see some of the highlights from BBC, Sky News, ITV, Surrey Live and over on our Twitter feed.
89 year old Moira Edwards from Epsom was first to receive her vaccine and said it was “extremely important” to get it.
We also now have all our planned GP-led services up and running and the first pharmacy vaccination site open in Guildford.
The full list of services is:
We are starting to receive more supplies of the Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine. As this is easier to transport it means significant progress is also being made with vaccinating care home residents and staff.
We have also been vaccinating at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford and Surrey and Sussex Hospitals in Redhill. Other NHS staff hubs will join shortly to cover all frontline health and care staff across the county. As more vaccine becomes available, we will move – where possible – to providing services 12 hours/day, 7 days/week.
Booking a vaccination
If you are aged over 80 you may have received a letter from NHS England inviting you for a vaccine at a larger vaccination centre which is located up to 45 minutes from your home. This is part of the national booking system. On receipt of this letter an appointment can be made online or by calling 119. Find out more. You may also be contacted by your local GP Network. These appointments will be available in a community setting and could be closer to home. We would recommend that you take an appointment as soon as possible – this may be at a local GP-led service.
Those over 80s who haven’t been contacted yet will be invited soon; they won’t be missed out.
We will then expand the programme to further cohorts, starting with the over 75s. All vaccination sites will keep you safe from COVID-19 through a range of measures including cleaning and disinfecting and having social distancing in waiting areas.
Please also wear a face covering to your appointment.
Help us to help you :
- Please do not contact your GP practice or the wider NHS to seek a vaccine, we will contact you (if you haven’t heard yet, we haven’t forgotten you)
- When we do contact you, please attend your booked appointments
- Please do not arrive too early for your vaccination appointment to help us maintain social distancing measures
New support centre to manage enquiries
We have set up a dedicated mailbox and telephone line to manage enquiries – the email address is: syheartlandsccg.vaccination@nhs.net
The phone number will go live on Monday and details will be published on our website (www.surreyheartlandsccg.nhs.uk) and in our next update.
Advice from The Rotary Club of Haslemere regarding Vaccination
I am sharing this checklist produced by The Rotary Club Of Haslemere regarding the vaccination programme.
There is so much confusion about the vaccination process and far too many scams happening right now. Although there is no definite process in place we thought to share some important points to consider. They suggest this list which should be used as a guideline. Check https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus if in doubt.
1. Do not ring your GP, hospital or the NHS for an appointment. Everyone is on their database and should be offered an appointment, by post or phone, to go to a vaccination hub or their GP when their “number” comes up. If you would find it difficult to get to a vaccination Hub you may request that you have an appointment with your GP or somewhere more local.
2. Write your NHS number on a piece of paper and keep it by your phone. You could be asked for this when you respond to their initial contact. If you don’t know your NHS number it can be found on any documentation you will have received previously from your GP (e.g. prescription), hospital or the NHS.
3. When you visit for your appointment wear clothing which gives you easy access to the shoulder you prefer the injection to be in. This is to avoid queues forming e.g. whilst people struggle with multiple layers of tight fitting clothing.
4. Very few people have any adverse reaction to the injection, except for a small pin prick from the needle and maybe a slight warm feeling. You will be required to sit quietly for 15 minutes after the injection whilst the staff observe you to ensure there is no adverse reaction.
5. The whole procedure from check-in on arrival to departure after the 15 minute observation should take about 30 minutes, but be prepared for delays if people arrive unprepared.
6. If you have an adverse reaction when you get home it is probably best to phone 111 letting them know what you have just experienced following a recent vaccination.
7. Only phone your GP Surgery about a Covid vaccination if you hear via the media/press that your age group has been fully vaccinated, but you haven’t.
8. More detailed information will be given to you during your appointment.
Covid-19 community vaccination programme for Surrey
Dear Stakeholder,
Covid-19 community vaccination programme for Surrey Surrey Heartlands CCG have been receiving lots of enquiries from the public regarding the Covid-19 vaccination programme in Surrey.
The Frequently Asked Questions are being updated regularly and can be found here. Please share these FAQs with your network.
Please encourage local people not to contact the NHS to seek a Covid-19 vaccine appointment, and reassure them they will be contacted when an appointment is available. We would ask you to encourage local people to help the NHS by being patient.
When people are contacted, they are urged to attend their booked appointment. Please also remind people that both doses of the vaccine are needed for it to be effective (which is about 7 days after the second dose).
Your help with sharing these key messages is much appreciated.
Finally, we would remind everyone to please continue to follow all the latest guidance to control the virus and save lives.
Thank you for your continued support.
Covid vaccination begins tomorrow in Haslemere
Covid vaccination begins tomorrow in Haslemere.
The first community Covid vaccination starts in Haslemere tomorrow, running 8am-8pm in St Christopher’s Church – Weds to Friday this week. There is no parking outside the church. It will be a drop off zone for people being vaccinated.
Please be patient if there are some traffic issues around St Christopher’s Green!
Haslemere traffic management – Covid vaccination programme, St. Christopher’s Church
Please read this letter to residents/retailers from St Christopher’s Church explaining the Covid vaccination program.
I have brought together representatives from the Health Service, church, SCC Parking and highways team and Waverley Borough Council to get prepared for the logistics of this exciting and challenging program.