We are just over three weeks into the roll out of our local COVID and flu vaccination campaign for this autumn and some 7,000 vaccinations have been given already.
It’s been great to see so many of our older patients attending for their FREE boosters at our vaccination hubs at Soham and Ely.
St George’s Medical Centre in Littleport has also joined the programme, offering the convenience of evening appointments to even more eligible patients.
In addition, our six GP practices have been working hard to vaccinate older adults in residential and care homes, as well as the frontline staff caring for them. We have begun also to visit our housebound patients and this part of the vaccination programme will continue for a couple more weeks.
We will continue to vaccinate as quickly as we can based on the vaccine deliveries we are allocated.
The vaccine we are using for this phase of the programme is Pfizer Bivalent. This means it protects you from both the original Delta variant of coronavirus and also Omicron.
The COVID vaccine is safe to be given alongside this year’s flu jab and will help considerably boost immunity in more vulnerable people, at a time when respiratory viruses are circulating widely in our communities.
Please don’t forget to bring a mask with you for your vaccination appointment. There may be far more vulnerable people alongside you in the queue, and we want to try and keep everyone as safe as possible.
We continue to contact patients who are eligible and now have invited all priority groups. This includes everyone aged 50 and over, pregnant women, frontline health and social care workers, and all those aged 16-40 who are at-risk.
If you have received a text message from us, please use the link in your message to book the date and time for your vaccination appointment. Clinic dates can be booked right through until the end of November, with appointments offered at Staploe Medical Centre, St George’s Medical Centre, St Mary’s Surgery and Cathedral Medical Centre.
Our clinics will continue to run right through to mid-December, so there is plenty of time to get booked in.
If you have not consented to receive text messages, the surgery will contact you when you are due. Please only contact the surgery about your vaccination if we’ve been in touch with you already. Do remember our staff are incredibly busy fielding all the usual health and care enquiries alongside those about autumn jabs, so your patience really does help a huge amount.
Patients who have yet to complete their primary doses (1st, 2nd and booster) are asked to attend one of the walk-in clinics. Dates and locations of local venues can be found here: www.thevaccinators.co.uk or call 119 for further information.
Ely PCN consists of the following GP practices: St George’s Medical Centre, Burwell Surgery, Cathedral Medical Centre, St Mary’s Surgery, Staploe Medical Centre and Haddenham Surgery.
