Three more community covid vaccination centres are opening this week – including one at the health centre which was at the centre of Brighton’s first outbreak.
The County Oak Medical Centre, Brighton Racecourse and Portslade Health Centre will be run by city GP practices and administer the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine.
The County Oak Medical Centre was closed in February last year after locum Dr Catriona Greenwood and another medic came into contact with Steve Walsh, who had picked up the virus in Singapore.
Now, eleven months later, it will be at the forefront of halting the virus in Brighton and Hove.
The vaccine has been trialled at selected hospitals in the country for surveillance purposes, including the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, before being sent out to community-based local vaccination services.
Unlike the Pfizer vaccine, the first to be approved, the Oxford vaccine does not need to be stored at ultra-low temperatures and is much easier to move, making it easier to use in care homes and to vaccinate the housebound.
The rollout comes after the vaccine was approved for use outside of hospitals by the four Chief Medical Officers and NHS England’s Medical Director, Professor Stephen Powis.
Care home residents cannot travel to hospital for a jab and Pfizer is difficult to get to hospitals so the decision will speed up the drive to vaccinate them.
Care home residents and staff were set as the highest priority group by the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.
In addition to the Oxford jab, local vaccination services are being issued with small packs of Pfizer jabs which can be used in care homes.
When the vaccine was first issued it had to be shipped in “pizza boxes” containing almost 1,000 doses, meaning that care homes could not be jabbed without wasting supplies.
The Brighton Racecourse centre will be run by:
- Park Crescent Health Centre
- St Peter’s Medical Centre
- Wellsbourne Healthcare CIC
- Albion Street Surgery
- Arch healthcare
- Ardingly Court Surgery
- Broadway Surgery
- Pavilion Surgery
- Regency Surgery
- Chapel Street Surgery, Newhaven
- Havens Health, Peacehaven
- Quayside Medical Practice, Newhaven
The County Oak Medical Centre vaccination centre will be run by:
- Brighton Station Health Centre
- Carden Surgery
- Montpelier Surgery
- Seven Dials Medical Centre
- University of Sussex Health Centre
The Portslade Health Centre vaccination centre will be run by:
- Hove Medical Centre
- Links Road Surgery
- Benfield Valley Healthcare Hub
- Portslade Health Centre
- Wish Park Surgery
- Mile Oak Medical Centre
- Trinity Medical Centre
- Charter Medical Centre
- Brighton Health and Wellbeing Centre
The St Augustine’s Arts and Events Centre vaccination centre, which opened last month, is run by:
- Preston Park Surgery
- Stanford Medical Centre
- The Haven Practice
- Warmdene Surgery
What happened to the plans for a mass centre at the Brighton Centre?
Probably still going ahead, several central GP surgeries aren’t listed here but probably will be when the Brighton Centre is officially announced.
I know soeone who used it last week . (28th January)
As is very usual in this dysfunctional city, no thought whatsoever has been given to the difficulty that older and less mobile people have in reaching these sites, even though they are the most vulnerable. Everyone in the ‘top’ four groups is getting on in age and/or probably has medical issues, as you do when you’re older; many of us don’t/can’t drive and some of us have nobody to drive them – even if it were allowed, who knows if it is, because of confused and confusing mixing rules – and this is not a car-friendly place, or are we supposed to cycle?? So we are talking about buses for some, which many in the ‘top’ 4 groups have been avoiding for nearly a year because public transport is not considered that safe, especially now that the mutant variation has taken off, and people have been warned off using it unless absolutely essential many times during the 10 months of restrictions. In the case of the Brighton Racecourse site, if you don’t drive and have to take a bus (only one every 30 mins from where I am, plus a difficult walk each end), this is pretty hard. The published procedures for the mass vaccination sites say that you check in at a reception, get clinically assessed, whatever that means, and then get in a queue for the jab etc. A lot of walking around and standing about for who knows how long. Far less bureaucracy would be very welcome for the less able, and I could get to the local pharmacy on foot tomorrow without all this OTT palaver. Why can there not be smaller sites more easily accessible on flatter ground which the elderly and less mobile might be able to get to without too much difficulty. I could walk to one (far less risky) if the journey was reasonably short and flat, but nothing at all has been said on that subject. There is a local pharmacy I could walk to, and maybe even East Brighton Park if they had a facility, but, no, let’s all take a big risk and get up to the Racecourse (including, I note, people from St Peter’s, which is hardly nearby or adjacent). I don’t know who is responsible for the decisions on sites, but I would suggest that whoever it is needs to get much more real and consider the circumstances of the ‘patients’ rather than their own bureaucratic convenience.
I so agree with this contributor. Knee-jerk reaction from Bojo & co without thought for the circumstances of a lot of older, vulnerable people, of limited means, who often live alone and cannot walk easily, stand around for hours, or because of poverty, afford expensive taxis. Bojo has to make these big gestures, everything has to be ‘world beating’, and programmes are run out without any thought as to the consequencies, when often small, local methods would be quicker, more effective and more convenient for people in the locality.
Also pharmacy-led, surgery-led vaccinations would cause less spread of the disease because less people would be hanging around for hours with others not in their bubble and often in the pouring rain and cold. Pharmacies and surgeries have done flu vaccinations for years and could organise better than these mega-vaccination centres and people would not have to wait. They could also easily report back to govt. the numbers vaccinated each day and in which category. Let’s have some common sense and calm shown by this government and not this constant state of panic and consequent thoughtless action, just for the sake of being seen to do something
What is happening to people registered with doctor in Saltdean ?
Hi Clive, people registered with GPs who aren’t running a centre will either get an appointment at a different centre, or possible a “roving” appointment – details are being finalised.
More information here:
https://www.sussexhealthandcare.uk/keepsussexsafe/sussex-covid-19-vaccination-programme/covid-19-vaccination-sites/brighton-and-hove-gp-led-vaccination-services/