The rollout at present in Shropshire is only the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine which has to be stored at -70oC . This is being organised by NHS England and letters are being centrally organised. All vaccinations for our area are currently being carried out at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. Vaccination Centres are being opened in other areas and these include the Orthopaedic at Gobowen (now open) and a centre in Ludlow and it is hoped that all centres across the County will be open by the end of the month.
Hopefully, there will be other sites in due course to meet the Government promise of vaccination centres being with 10 miles of where people live.
The Chair of the Clinical Commissioning Group, Dr Povey said recently:
“We would expect to see between 10 and 15 sites in total, again it will be down to supply. We are giving as much vaccine as we are delivered.
“Yes we want it to be done quicker, we want it to be done to more people
He said by the end of this week, vaccinations should have been given at seven nursing homes in the county and by the end of the month, it should have been rolled out to all nursing and care homes.
“I can appreciate people are frustrated and they want it sooner but it’s not for want of trying,” Dr Povey said.
“We’d all work 24 hours a day if the vaccine was there to give it but it’s not there to give”.
Your GP surgery is not in charge of any of this as yet so contacting them just adds to their workload. I am sure that they will let you all know when they know something more.
This is chaotic as centres need to be approved by NHS England and we need to have enough vaccine available.
In Wales, the Newtown Centre will be opened this week. English patients registered with a Welsh GP will have their vaccinations through the Welsh route.
As soon as I know more I will let you know.
Only the over 80’s are being vaccinated at present along with some front line NHS staff and carers locally