GP surgeries to start staffing Covid vaccines centres by December 14
GP surgeries have been told to be ready to start staffing coronavirus vaccine centres by mid-December.
Sites must be prepared to administer nearly 1,000 doses of the vaccine to priority patients within three-and-a-half days of the jabs being delivered on December 14.
The NHS’s medical director for primary care Dr Nikita Kanani said the vaccination programme will be ‘one of the greatest challenges the NHS has ever faced’ in a letter sent to surgeries.
Speed is crucial in the effectiveness of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab which is usually stored at -70C. It remains stable at fridge temperature – between 2C and 8C – for a short amount of time.
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There are 975 doses in each of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine packs, which poses a logistical problem of how they can be broken up and distributed to other key sites such as care homes.
The first to receive the jab at the vaccination centres will be people aged 80 and above, as long as their risk factors ‘clinical or otherwise’ have been taken into account.
NHS England and NHS Improvement said the number of vaccination sites in each clinical commissioning group (CCG) area will vary according to the number of residents who are over 80.
CCGs have been asked to consider inequalities and deprivation – some of the biggest virus risk factors – when choosing the sites.
Each centre will be supplied with the ‘IT equipment necessary to deliver the programme and a fridge’, the letter said. Staff will be provided with training and offered ‘full support to mobilise within the timescale’.
CCGs were told they must ‘offer all possible assistance’ to the vaccine sites as the programme gets underway. This includes helping with logistics and setting up clinical waste arrangements.
Urgent care must be provided by GPs even when the vaccine is being delivered – but the vaccination programme must be their top priority.
The letter added £150 million in funding is available to ensure GPs meet their usual obligations while delivering the vaccine programme.
It finished by heralding the ‘hugely exciting moment for general practice’, adding: ‘You will be playing a key part in this important programme’.
It comes as the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) says it has approved a solution to splitting vaccine packs and getting it into care homes.
Assemblers – a mixture of companies licensed to assemble packs and NHS hospitals with appropriate facilities – will break down the vaccines into smaller batches in special cold rooms at between 2C and 8C.
Assemblers will have just 12 hours to thaw the vials, repack the medicines, label them and distribute them to the mobile teams delivering to care homes.
Elderly care home residents are the highest priority, but will not be first in the queue as manufacturers have to test and validate the assembly process and ensure all staff are thoroughly trained.
The MHRA said: ‘We have put in place arrangements to support delivery of the vaccine to top priority groups as safely and swiftly as possible.
‘Regulatory approvals required to proceed with the splitting up of packs have been put in place.
‘We are working with NHS and their assemblers to help support them to implement the processes and training they need to have in place to meet our conditions.’
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