COVID-19 Vaccination
***Torbay COVID-19 Vaccination Update 11/02/2021**
Thank you very much for your patience and allowing us the time to complete all our calls to patients in cohorts 1-4. We know it’s confusing when the BBC and MPs announce to contact your surgery and we ask you to wait, but we needed to do this due to the large number of patients locally in these cohorts. Vaccination Centres across the Country are at slightly different stages, with some areas having already called all their patients in cohorts 1-4, whereas only a few days ago we still had hundreds of patients we needed to contact in those cohorts. If even half of these called the surgery on the same day this would stop those patients requiring medical assistance getting through and being given the help they need. With your cooperation we avoided that situation and have been able to complete all our calls alongside providing our usual high level of care to our patients.
We have now attempted to contact all our patients in cohort 1-4 to offer them a vaccination appointment. If you are in these cohorts and we haven’t been able to reach you, or if you’ve previously declined and have now changed your mind and would like a vaccination, please call the practice after 11am and we can arrange this for you over the next week. This only applies to those patients in cohorts 1-4 which is those patients aged 70+ or those who are clinically extremely vulnerable and have a shielding letter.
We have now completed over 80% of our housebound visits, with the majority of those left due to the patients not currently being at their home address and we will continue to mop these up over the coming weeks.
We have now started inviting those patients in cohort 5 for their vaccine, which is patients aged 65+. Again, please do not contact us for an appointment, we will contact you as quickly as we can. At the moment external services such as 119 cannot book directly into our clinics at The Riviera Centre in Torquay, but we are working as hard as we can to get through the lists quickly, sometimes in only a matter of days. Alternatively you can contact 119 who will book you in to one of the mass vaccination centres at Plymouth, Exmouth or Exeter but please be aware wherever you attend your 1st vaccination is where you will need to attend for your 2nd vaccination.
Please click here for information regarding COVID vaccination for unpaid carers
All patients registered with a GP practice across Torbay who are eligible for the vaccination will be vaccinated at RICC and parking is available onsite. RICC was chosen due to the strict social distancing measures that need to be in place to protect patients and the special conditions the vaccine needs to be stored in, along with the very strict timescales for the two doses, meaning it can only be achieved on a Torbay-wide level at one location. Here is a short video which has been put together to show you what to expect on the day. Please do not turn up at the centre unless you have been contacted by us with an appointment.
Transport
If you are struggling with transport to RICC, the Torbay Community Helpline have some volunteers that can help. Please contact them direct using the details below.
Aiding the people of Torbay during the COVID-19 Pandemic and beyond, with neighbourly support.
01803 446022 10am-6pm, Mon-Fri, 9:30am-12:30pm Sat
Online form: bit.ly/torbayhelpline
Health and Social Care Staff
All Health and Social Care Workers will be receiving their COVID-19 vaccination at a hospital hub and your employer will be receiving information on this by the end of January so please do not contact the practice regarding your vaccinations.
Workforce
Members of staff from all Practices in Torbay are working to deliver the COVID-19 Vaccine to patients at the Riviera Centre. Nurses, GPs, Healthcare Assistants, Admin staff and Managers are all spending time working at the site each day, instead of at their Practice to try and deliver the vaccine to protect our most vulnerable. We do not have any additional staff above and beyond our normal team, many of whom are now working 7 days a week to ensure we offer this service to our patients on top of running our GP practices.
This means that it is harder for us to offer our normal services and you may experience delays in getting through on the phone or seeing your preferred member of staff. Therefore, please do bear with us. As a surgery we remain open and here to help you. Our staff are working harder, working longer hours and are under more pressure than ever before. Please help us to get through this difficult time together by being patient with us - we are managing this programme on top of the usual high demand at this time of year and we are all working as hard as possible for you so we can get back to a more normal way of life as quickly as possible.
Please continue to adhere to the Hands, Face, Space measures that are helping us limit the transmission of the virus.
For answers to frequently asked questions, click here
For information on what to expect for your vaccination please see link to video
Stay Safe,
The Chilcote Team
