ST HELENS GPs have administered more than 6,000 Covid vaccines to its patients, as they urge the public to continue to take every precaution.
The GP-led mass vaccination programme has been running since December, with mass clinics running at Saints’ stadium.
However, only the first wave of patients to receive the Pfizer vaccine have had their booster jabs, after the government changed its strategy to ensure more of the population receive an initial dose.
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The arrival of the Oxford-AstraZeneca has enabled GPs to ramp up its operation, allowing them to start vaccinating smaller care homes and housebound patients.
On Wednesday, St Helens CCG’s governing body were told the primary care network (PCN) vaccination programme is going “extremely well”, with GPs now offering vaccinations to over 70s.
Dr Mike Ejuoneatse, St Helens CCG’s medical director, said: “The intention is to ensure that by the middle of February the first four cohorts have been vaccinated.
“And this includes care home residents, front-line staff, the over 70s and those who are clinically/extremely vulnerable.
“The availability of the AstraZeneca vaccine has afforded greater flexibility in terms of local vaccine movement and delivery, which has enabled us to being to look at addressing the issue of vaccinating small to medium sized care homes and the housebound.”
Dr Ejuoneatse said more than 6,000 vaccines have been administered through the PCN vaccination service, with “very little wastage”.
This is in addition to the regional mass vaccination hub that launched this week, also at the Totally Wicked Stadium, which is being led by St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
The regional hub aims to vaccinate 1,000 people a day, and while the trust will not release actual figures a spokesman said it has been a “very positive start”.
Dr Ejuoneatse said local services are trying to coordinate efforts, so the vaccination programme is delivered with “maximum efficiency”.
“There is I suppose a word of caution, that as more sites are stood up and vaccine delivery increases, there is the potential for confusion amongst the public as to where they go for their vaccines,” he said.
“The local services are working very closely to try and coordinate their efforts, so the vaccination programme is delivered with maximum efficiency.”
Dr Ejuoneatse also stressed the importance of hands, face, space to help reduce the spread of the virus.
He told the governing body that the Covid infection rates have been rising “exponentially” in St Helens, with a particularly worrying rise in the over 60s.
“This is likely to remain the case, at least for the next two to three weeks until the effects of the national lockdown starts to take effect,” Dr Ejuoneatse said.
“As you’d expect, hospital admissions are on the rise, although at the time of this report I’d reflected that our local trusts were doing well in comparison to other regional acute trusts.
“I think the situation on the ground today is that our local trust is now in particularly challenging position.
“So everything is being done to ease the pressures on the trust in terms of ensuring that hospital admissions are avoided as much as possible and discharges are expedited as much as possible.”
Geoffrey Appleton, lay chair of St Helens CCG, said Whiston Hospital is “full to the rafters with Covid patients”, as he urged the public to take every precaution.
“Please, for everybody in our borough, can everybody take responsibility for themselves and for those they care for in observing the face, space rule,” he said.
“And when they go shopping, keep to the absolute minimum, observe the distance, wear your mask.
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“These things absolutely make a difference.
“Out hospital is full to the rafters with Covid patients. We want to preserve those beds for the sickest patients.
“We must all do all that we can please. The numbers are extremely high.”
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