I want to return this week to a topic I have covered extensively in recent months but remains critical to East Lancashire and the country as a whole.
And that is the importance of being vaccinated when it is your turn. If you have already been called to have yours and done so, thank you!
If you have declined for whatever reason, please, take up this offer as soon as you are able.
The vaccination programme is something everyone in the NHS and wider health and social care system is tremendously proud to have been part of. It is the NHS at its very, very best.
In East Lancashire, the Trust has worked with colleagues across health and social care, the local authority, community pharmacies, emergency services including Police, fire and rescue and the voluntary, community and faith sector, to deliver as many doses as we have been able to as quickly as we can.
We have done this through our hospital hubs in Burnley and Blackburn as well as in mass vaccination sites at Blackburn Cathedral and Burnley’s shopping centre The Mall. We have been supported by colleagues in pharmacies and other health settings extensively, around the clock, day in and day out.
It’s been a true team effort which has included the estates, logistics and IT infrastructure, behind the scenes and hidden, but critical to setting up these sites so quickly and effectively. Every table, every chair, screens, signage, the consumable clinical goods and, of course, their safe disposal, all appearing as if by magic in the night.
The supply of the vaccine itself and delivery to those venues has not been easy or straight forward to achieve. The Pfizer vaccine itself needs to be stored in freezing temperatures well below the norm and not usually found in domestic or commercial settings. Once opened, the batches needed to be used within set times. The balance of vaccinating as many people as possible without wasting a single dose so difficult to perfectly achieve.
The biggest logistic challenge, but it has been achieved.
The team of people who have put themselves forward to this have gone above and beyond and then some, to help with this monumental effort like no other vaccination programme in our history.
Clinicians and colleagues from the Trust and across health and social care. People returning to practice to help. Volunteers from the community wanting to do their bit and be part of something they can look back on with pride.
Let’s not forget those who developed the vaccine – so incredible in its efficacy considering how quickly it was required. Those who have now been fully vaccinated with two doses are up to 97 per cent protected against dying or being seriously ill with Covid which, really, is an incredible and outstanding result.
Thank you to everyone who has achieved this. It is an amazing, collectively delivered community programme that we will remember for a very long time and look back on with immense pride.
But that’s not what I want to say. There is one, very obvious, but critical part missing from this chain. If you haven’t guessed it, it’s you.
Without you, we can’t make this happen. We can’t administer the vaccine completely and pockets of our community remain unprotected from this horrific and regularly mutating virus that has killed so many of the people we love.
What follows is a rise in community infections as restrictions ease, people begin to mix again and foreign travel imports new strains such as the Indian virus which is now being seen across the UK and, indeed, in East Lancashire.
Please, don’t leave yourself unnecessarily open to catching Covid. Don’t spread it to others who might not be able to fight it off. Just as importantly, please, think of the staff across our hospitals and community settings who have bravely fought this for the past year and do not want to consider having to cope with a fourth wave.
In addition, seriously, think of all of the people who have waited for treatment for other conditions and illnesses who need to receive care and support as quickly as possible. We can not restore our services or our people if Covid returns to our wards and communities in any major way.
There really is no excuse for not having the vaccine when it is offered, unless you fall within the clinically vulnerable groups of course. There are lots of places you can get it and new ones have been opened this week. They are:
· The hospital hub at Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital – open 7 days a week including the Bank Holiday
· The hospital hub at Burnley General Teaching Hospital
· The mass vaccination centre at the Crypt, Blackburn Cathedral
· The mass vaccination centre in the former Next store in The Mall, Burnley
· The pop up vaccination centre in Penny Street Car Park, Blackburn
· The pop up vaccination centre at Revidge Fold Church, Shear Brow
· Acorn Medical Centre, Accrington
· Everest Pharmacy, Darwen
Over the next two weeks as infection rates rise in the communities of East Lancashire we will be providing an extra 20,000 vaccination appointments to people who need them. If you are over 34 or over 18 with a clinically eligible condition that means you. Please, book one using our local or national booking systems online and you will be given an appointment time to ensure you are vaccinated promptly and safely.
Be part of this amazing effort which will help us all return to normal as soon as possible. Please, encourage anyone you know to do the same.