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15
Feb 2021
EXCLUSIVE: Great Yorkshire Showground can give 1,800 vaccines in a day
Harrogate’s Great Yorkshire Showground vaccine site can carry out up to 1,800 vaccinations a day.
The site, which opened its doors on December 22, is among four centres which are currently offering vaccines to people in the district.
In an interview with the Stray Ferret, Dr Chris Preece, a GP partner in Boroughbridge and Knaresborough and clinical director of the Knaresborough and Rural District Primary Care Network, said he spent the weeks leading up to Christmas working on the blueprints for the centre.
He said the site had slowly cranked up its numbers, but added there was “a lot more work to do” to vaccinate everyone.
Christmas planning
Discussions about the site started in late November after GPs were told they would need to set up vaccination centres.
Seventeen GP practices in the district and the Yorkshire Health Network, the federation of GPs, came together to look for a suitable venue to carry out vaccinations.
Officials scouted sites in Harrogate, Ripon and Knaresborough including halls, swimming pools and supermarkets.
They settled on the showground because of its size and the need to keep batches of the Pfizer vaccine refrigerated on site.
Dr Preece and his colleagues spent weeks drawing up protocols, job descriptions and plans for how the site would look.
Read more:
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While others were out Christmas shopping, the team were mapping out and drawing chalk lines on the floor of the hall to mark where dividers would be placed.
Dr Preece said:
'A small army of volunteers'
The site runs on hundreds of staff and volunteers who have given up their time to help with what has been described as the biggest vaccination programme in British history.
GP surgeries from all over the district send staff to the site every day on a rota system.
Some clinical staff have come out of retirement to help with the vaccine effort.
Alongside the doctors and nurses is a “small army of marshals” who help to signpost people into the car park and into the centre.
Dr Preece said the vaccination centre would not have been able to operate well without them.
He said:
Ramping up vaccinations
While the centre runs on the availability of vaccines, it can give up to 1,800 vaccinations a day at maximum capacity.
It's taken time for the numbers to reach those levels, Dr Preece said, and is dependent on the supply they have.
He said:
Alongside the centre, clinical staff started to vaccinate care homes in January after batches of the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine arrived. In one weekend, 50 homes were vaccinated.
Last week, surgeries also paid visits to those that are housebound.
As the site presses ahead with first doses, those requiring their second vaccine will begin to filter through gradually.
Dr Preece said he expects it will offer “more work in the short term” as they overlap with first doses.
Meanwhile, Amanda Bloor, accountable officer at North Yorkshire CCG, told journalists at a press briefing earlier this week that 175,000 first doses have been carried out in North Yorkshire and York so far.
While the numbers continue to increase, health bosses are still urging those over-70 who have not had the vaccine to come forward.
More work to do, but a sense of optimism
As the year goes on, the centre will continue to make its way down the age cohorts until everyone is offered the vaccine.
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Dr Preece said the operation is the biggest undertaking of his 18-year career and joked that it was like “putting on the Olympics after a village fete”.
However, he said he was still optimistic about the future but added there was still more work to be done.
He said:
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