Author: Clerk

Vaccination is the only way we are going to overcome this virus.
Protecting the most vulnerable of our residents is so very important and The County Council needs your help to co-ordinate transport for those unable to make their own way to these centres.
Can YOU help by encouraging local volunteer groups to register their lift services as set out below

The County Council are supporting the Clinical Commissioning Groups with how they transport people to the N&N and the James Paget hospitals for Covid vaccines and with additional sites that came this week across Norfolk.

It notes that many people will be well used to getting to and from the hospital, many will use public transport and be linked in with volunteer transport already, which is great. However, many will not and will need help getting there.

They should go to https://communitydirectory.norfolk.gov.uk/ to upload this information. Whilst the volunteer driver scheme that NCC manages will be able to help a lot of people, they are a limited resource centrally and affected by the fact that many of their drivers are older people, so we are trying to make it as easy as possible for people to get transport

As well as the two centres at the Norfolk and Norwich and the James Paget Hospitals the Norfolk and Waveney Clinical commissioning Group has announced that the following centres are now open

• Fakenham Medical Practice, Fakenham
• St James Medical Practice, King’s Lynn
• Lionwood Medical Practice, Norwich
• Falkland Surgery, Bradwell
• Swanton Morley Surgery, Swanton Morley
• Thetford Healthy Living Centre, Thetford
• Kirkley Mill Surgery, Lowestoft

These seven sites will be acting as ‘primary care hubs’: vaccinating patients from their own practice as well as other neighbouring practices from this week:

Those who are most at risk from COVID-19 are being prioritised first; members of the public who are over 80 years-old, care home workers and a small number for at risk frontline NHS staff.

GP practices work closely together with neighbouring practices in local groups called Primary Care Networks (PCNs).  Each PCN will have a designated vaccination site, providing a good geographical spread of vaccination locations across Norfolk and Waveney.

Each of these sites will vaccinate patients from across a number of the PCN’s member practices – not just those on their own surgery list.  People in the ‘at risk’ priority groups will be contacted to make an appointment no matter which practice they are registered with.

Following the go live of the first seven GP practice vaccination sites this week, the local NHS is working with PCNs to mobilise additional large and small community sites over the coming weeks and months. GP practices are working through their lists and booking in the first patients for vaccination appointments at either the hospital hubs based in Norwich and Great Yarmouth or at a local GP surgery site.  All those being vaccinated will be asked to fill in a health screening questionnaire and consent form.