NHS Covid-19 vaccination programme
The national Covid-19 vaccination programme got underway on 8 December, with the first ‘hospital hubs’ providing the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine primarily to care home residents and patients over 80. The north west London vaccination programme is due to start next week, with community-based hubs beginning to vaccinate older people and others in the top priority categories.
Vaccine prioritisation has been set nationally by the Independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and is based on preventing deaths and hospitalisation and protecting health and social care staff and services. You can read more about the JCVI prioritisation approach by following this link.
Our Trust expects to receive an initial supply of the vaccine for our staff and we are awaiting a delivery date. We want to make the most of the time until we receive our first batch of vaccine by getting our operational plans firmly in place as well as gearing up for wider roll out to all staff over the coming weeks. Staff assessed as ‘high risk’ through our existing individual risk assessment process will be offered a vaccine as a priority.
Chief executive Professor Tim Orchard said: “The NHS has begun its biggest ever vaccination programme. Well done to those trusts that administered the first batches of Covid-19 vaccines and helped the NHS make history again. We’re getting ready – and looking forward – to joining the effort to protect our staff and local community.”
North West London Health and Care Partnership will share more information about the public vaccination programme as soon as possible. Individuals will be contacted directly with an invitation to be vaccinated, according to the prioritisation approach. You do not need to call your GP or any other services to book a vaccine. We will share details about our staff vaccination programme via our intranet.
