COVID-19 Vaccination campaign

Posted on December 21st, 2020

Covid-19 vaccination

As you may be aware a vaccination program has now started against Covid-19. Our practice in collaboration with the 16 other local practices surrounding Grantham and Sleaford have together administered approximately 2,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to patients shared equally by capitation amongst the patients of these practices.

The vaccination program is happening in a very ordered way which prioritises those at most risk if they were to contract Covid-19 using department of Health and Social Care guidelines.

The order of those called for vaccination is as follows:

1. residents in a care home for older adults and their carers
2. all those 80 years of age and over and frontline health and social care workers
3. all those 75 years of age and over
4. all those 70 years of age and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals
5. all those 65 years of age and over
6. all individuals aged 16 years to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality
7. all those 60 years of age and over
8. all those 55 years of age and over
9. all those 50 years of age and over

It is estimated that taken together, these groups represent around 99% of preventable mortality from COVID-19.

Due to the complex nature of transport and storage of the vaccine we have started with category 2, patients over 80 and frontline health and social care workers first although we expect to begin vaccinating residents in care homes for older adults and their carers very soon.

Each practice within South West Lincolnshire is given an allocation of patients to call based upon a fair capitation share and at present approximately 150 patients from our practice area have been called and vaccinated.

There are a small number of exclusions from this group at present due to certain medical conditions but a process is in place to ensure all over 80’s are offered vaccination before we move onto the next group of patients to vaccinate.

As you may imagine this is a huge task which is taking place at one of the busiest times of the year for the NHS. Caythorpe & Ancaster Medical Practice, along with our colleagues in all parts of the health service are committed to ensuring this vaccine is administered to vulnerable patients as soon as possible.

The practice receives 3-4 days’ notice of delivery of vaccines to one local centre where vaccination will take place. Once the vaccine has been delivered it can only be stored for 3 days so patients are contacted by a call centre operating from one of our neighbour practices covering all of our area to book an appointment at short notice.

The Practice has provided to the call centre the details of the patients to contact and rest assured if you fit into the above categories you will be called fairly and in an order based upon strict clinical guidelines.

You do not need to contact the practice to arrange vaccination you will be contacted and we are unable to give you further information about when supplies will arrive or when you can expect vaccination but we know that there are large supplies of this vaccine available and we are working our way through this process as fast as is humanly possible.

As a practice we are overjoyed to be involved in vaccinating patients across all local practices against this horrible virus. We have had amazing support from local volunteers who have given their time to assist patients with this process and have committed practice resources to ensure we are sharing this workload locally on a fair basis.

We thank you for your support and patience in this process. This program of vaccination has been described as a marathon not a sprint and we all want to ensure our loved ones are protected as soon as possible to allow us to return to a more open way of life. Please at this point however don’t contact the Practice asking when it is expected that vaccination will be offered to you or a loved one as we are unable to give a date, please trust us that it will be offered as soon as possible in a fair and transparent manner.