Agenda item

Dr Abid Irfan, from Strawberry Hill, Medical Centre, provided an update on the rollout of Covid-19 vaccinations across West Berkshire. He noted that nine West Berkshire GP surgeries had worked together to open a vaccination centre at the racecourse last Thursday. He noted that it had taken a bit of time to establish and thanked the racecourse, GP practice managers and volunteers for their efforts. He stated that the first clinics had been a real success with positive feedback from patients. Clinics were held on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday using one batch of the Pfizer vaccine.

Dr Irfan said that three of the largest care homes in the district had been administered with around 300 doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. He further noted that it had been a good start and that he was hoping to ramp up the numbers as we get more and more of the vaccine, but it was determinant on the supply of the vaccine. He said the racecourse would probably be running to full capacity in the next week, with clinics on Tuesday and Friday, after which there were housebound patients who would be using community centres.

Councillor Steve Masters asked whether the racecourse could be used seven days a week.

Dr Irfan noted that it was subject to race days. If there was a race day, even if it's behind closed doors, he noted that it was his understanding that the racecourse had said the site could not be used. He further noted that assuming there was no race days the next question was when the supplies were coming in. He stated that if the supply was on a Monday you normally book the next three days. However, if the centre were getting a supply every day, and no race days, then technically it could operate as a seven-day hub, subject to staff and volunteers. 

Dr Irfan also stated that the racecourse was chosen following the success of a coronavirus primary care hub established there last April. He noted that the site was chosen because it is a central location, had lots of easy access, parking and a great venue to work with.

Councillor Howard Woollaston asked why GPs had decided not to vaccinate at the nine surgeries using the racecourse. 

Dr Irfan noted that he believed the reasoning was not to disrupt services back at the surgeries. He stated that he knew some surgeries had done that but the view, as a collective group of GPs, was that it was best done off site so that they could maintain those services. He said that surgeries had a number of national priorities such as mental health checks and smear tests. He noted that he felt that to provide a safe and on-going service for all the routine care it was better off site, and all the logistics around the Pfizer vaccine, the infection control, mixing up, it made more sense. 

Councillor Boeck noted that a number of his residents were part of surgeries across the border in Hampshire and were concerned they were not getting a fair deal, given Hampshire seemed to be progressing at a greater pace than West Berkshire.

Dr Irfan stated that West Berkshire was one of the latter waves, so it was just a matter of timing and that West Berkshire would catch up and as supplies increased to our hub, then the vaccination centre would be able to ramp up capacity significantly. He noted that there may be a bit of a lag but he would reassure patients and say we are working on it. He noted that the hard work was done now and it was now about just getting the vaccine and then we can ramp up capacity. He stated that West Berkshire would will get through all the cohorts. It may be two or three weeks behind those who started before Christmas but we would get there.

Councillor Lynne Doherty asked about the timescale of vaccinating different age groups.

Dr Irfan stated that because West Berkshire was one of the later waves to start because of the set up time, it probably needed to continue with the over 80s for now. He said that he was quite confident that all care homes would be vaccinated by the weekend. He further added that once those cohorts were out of the way, they would move down the cohorts - extremely clinically vulnerable, over 75s, the 70s – which was all subject to supply of the vaccine. He noted that at the moment you can't go and order the vaccine, it's a push system but he was advised that it was going to change. 

He stated that the difficulty with planning at the moment was that the vaccination centre did not know what it was going to get the next week, so it was working within a short few days, so that was why it was not as smooth as it could be. However, once it was on an ordering system it could plan weeks in advance.

Furthermore, he noted that some residents had reported being asked to travel to the NHS vaccination centre in Marlow. He stated that this had caused a bit of confusion but that it was there to provide some choice. He advised that surgeries were working through the list of patients but they would be in touch and then they can have it done locally.

Dr Irfan said that surgeries had been asked not to share local vaccination figures because they are sent and compiled nationally and then need to be validated to make sure they are accurate.