Phase 3 Boosters - September 2021

We have embarked on delivering phase 3 ie booster jabs for those eligible. We are starting by focusing on patients in care homes and those over 80. We will be in contact as and when you are eligible, please do not call the Surgery to enquire before this time. Alternatively, eligible patients can call 119 or book online to receive their vaccine at a hub.

June 2021 - Phase 1 Concludes

Our final Covid Vaccination clinic at New Dover Road Surgery took place on 21st June 2021. This marked exactly 6 months since we started, back on a freezing cold, dark night a few days before Christmas.

Since that date, our whole team, together with PCN colleagues, volunteers making phone calls and marshalling clinics and volunteer vaccinators, including retired GPs, have come together to ensure our all patients in the top priority groups, plus our own staff and staff in care homes, have been offered both doses of either Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines.

Here are some facts and figures:

  • Vaccine clinics have been held across 44 different dates since 22nd December. Several of these have been late evenings, and 8 clinics were held on Saturdays, with volunteers and surgery staff working overtime at weekends so we could hold larger clinics.
  • Our nurses have also undertaken house calls on 21 separate dates, to get 2 doses of vaccine to 85 of our housebound patients.
  • In addition, we prioritised our care home residents, completing 197 vaccines for patients in our local care homes, as well as vaccinating around 60 members of care home staff.
  • We delivered 2648 first doses and 2616 second doses, meaning a huge total of 5264 vaccines have been administered by New Dover Road Surgery staff and our affiliated volunteers.
  • Given the nature of the delivery schedule, we rarely had more than 1 week's notice of when we could hold a clinic, meaning delivery of this programme involved countless hours of making phone calls and sending out text messages, to attempt to ensure as many people as possible received invites. This work was carried out by New Dover Road staff, plus a small and dedicated group of bank workers who gave their spare time to help us make these thousands of phone calls.
  • There was also a significant amount of admin work involved before and after clinics, to ensure accurate lists were drawn up of who was next due, and then to reconcile lists and ensure clinical records were accurate and up-to-date.
  • Of all the patients on our register who are double vaccinated and over 50 or with underlying health conditions, almost 70% were vaccinated by New Dover Road Surgery. This mirrors national figures, which show that Primary Care has delivered approximately 70% of the vaccination programme to date - this is alongside our other work.
  • As a Primary Care Network (New Dover Road together with Canterbury Medical Practice and the University Medical Centre), we delivered over 19,000 vaccine doses to our patients: the residents of Canterbury and surrounding areas.

We are enormously proud of this achievement, and to have played a part in the hugely successful and vitally important nationwide vaccine programme. It has been challenging, especially needing to continue to provide day-to-day care for our patients alongside vaccinating, but very rewarding. We were even featured in the Kentish Gazette newspaper back in February. 

As the country moves on to vaccinating younger adults, we are continuing to contribute by helping staff the new vaccine centre at the Sea Cadets Hall on Vauxhall Road, which has been set up by Northgate Medical Practice. However, we are stepping back from offering vaccines at the New Dover Road site, to allow us more time for other services. 

We would like to extend our thanks to every member of the team who supported administratively and in clinics, every volunteer vaccinator who gave up their time to help, every additional staff member who made those countless phone calls, and every patient who attended - clinics were a pleasure to work as we appreciated the good humour, smiling faces and words of thanks.

 

Published: Jun 18, 2021