These pages are meant to help as a guide for residents in Westfield about the rolling out of the vaccination programme. Pages will be updated with any new information sent to the Parish Clerk. Please note that the Parish Council in not involved with the roll out and these pages are here to support residents but we do not have details on individual appointments. Much of the information is being provided by Rother District officers. Details can also be found here at:
Headings of key articles
- People added to the clinically extremely vulnerable list to receive letters from the national booking system 23/02/2021
- Targets for vaccinating all nine priority groups 22/01/2021
- More ways for people to receive the COVID-19 vaccination as three pharmacy services go live 01/02/2021
- FAQs about the Covid-19 vaccine 02/02/2021
- Covid-19 weekly headlines for East Sussex 29/01/2021
- Update from Westfield Surgery 24/01/2021
- Largest COVID-19 vaccination centre in Sussex opens at Brighton Centre 25/01/2021
- Mythbusting: My GP-led vaccination service has closed (no it hasn’t) 25/01/2021
- Housebound residents will be vaccinated 29/01/2021
- Health and care workers on track for jab by mid-February 29/01/2021
People added to the clinically extremely vulnerable list to receive letters from the national booking system
More than 20,000 people in Sussex have been added to the list of people who are clinically extremely vulnerable (also known as the shielded patient list) after a new assessment of the health of local communities. People in this group will have received a letter advising them that they are now on the clinically extremely vulnerable list, putting them at high priority for a vaccination. In the coming days they will also receive a letter from the national vaccination programme encouraging them book their appointment.
If you receive this letter, you can book your vaccination straight away by visiting www.nhs.uk/covid-vaccination or by calling 119 free of charge between 7am and 11pm seven days a week. Alternatively, you can wait to be contacted by your local GP-led vaccination service.
Targets for vaccinations for all areas
The first four cohorts of the below liste/d priority groups are expected to all be vaccinated by 15 February. The full nine priority groups are expected to be vaccinated by April. The full list of these groups is as follows:
- Residents in a care home for older adults and their carers
- All those 80 years of age and over and frontline health and social care workers
- All those 75 years of age and over
- All those 70 years of age and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals
- All those 65 years of age and over
- All individuals aged 16 years to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality
- All those 60 years of age and over
- All those 55 years of age and over
- All those 50 years of age and over
- The full newsletter from MP Huw Merriman can be found by clicking here.
- Details on work from MP Sally Ann-Hart can be found by clicking here.
More ways for people to receive the COVID-19 vaccination as three pharmacy services go live
This week, three pharmacies in Sussex have started offering the COVID-19 vaccination to local residents. We understand there may be some confusion around how pharmacies are providing the vaccine and what the difference is with other services.
In addition to the GP-led local vaccination services and the larger vaccination centres, such as The Brighton Centre, the pharmacy-led services in Midhurst in West Sussex and Ore and Ticehurst in East Sussex are all providing the COVID-19 vaccinations to currently eligible people.
Appointments are being made through the national booking system and eligible people have been starting to receive letters this week to invite them to go online or call the national number to book their place.
These services are additional options for people, alongside the GP-led local vaccination services. When people receive a letter, they have a choice to use the national booking system to arrange an appointment at one of these pharmacies or a large vaccination centre. Alternatively, they can wait to be contacted by their local GP-led service to arrange an appointment there, if they prefer.
Further pharmacy-led sites are expected to go live in Sussex over the coming weeks.
Find out more about the GP-led sites in your area
FAQs about the Covid-19 Vaccine
A reliable local source of additional information about the vaccine has been issued by Sussex Health and Care Partnership. This easy to read information can be found by clicking here. The main areas it covers are:
Section 1: Receiving the vaccine
Section 2: About the vaccines
Section 3: Specific patient groups and the COVID-19 vaccine
Section 4: Misinformation and the COVID-19 vaccine
Section 5: COVID-19 vaccine and the flu vaccine
Section 6: Contacts for further information.
We know that some people are rightly cautious about clicking on links in E-mails. If you prefer, you can search the web yourself for Sussex Health and Care Partnership FAQs about the COVID-19 vaccine, which should lead you to the same location.
Covid-19 weekly headlines for East Sussex
The rates in East Sussex continue to decrease and we appear to be past the peak. However, rates are still high and the rate for East Sussex remains above the rate for the South East and the rate for England. Eastbourne remains, by far, the area with the highest rate at 631 per 100,000. Eastbourne has seen a significant but slower reduction than in other areas.
The declaration of a major incident remains across Sussex. Hospitals are continuing to experience substantial pressures due to demand on beds. We must all guard against complacency – if we each individually make it known that we are sticking by the rules we are encouraging others to stick by the rules. You can read more on the East Sussex County Council website.
Housebound residents will be vaccinated
People who eligible and are considered housebound across Sussex have been assured they will receive their vaccination before mid-February. The NHS is on course to vaccinate the top four priority groups by the middle of next month, in line with the national target. This includes those in the priority groups who are considered housebound. As of 24 January, over 200,000 vaccinations had been given across Sussex, with 73% of all those over the age of 80 being vaccinated.
There are a number of ways people in the top four priority groups are being vaccinated. For most people who are eligible, they are being contacted by their local GP-led vaccination service to have a vaccination or they can go to a large vaccination centre if they prefer. The large vaccination centre in Sussex is at the Brighton Centre but people can book an appointment at other large centres in other counties if they wish through the national booking system. Heath and care staff are receiving the vaccination at hospital hubs and the Brighton Centre.
For those residents who are in care homes and for those considered housebound, there is a ‘roving’ service, which involves the vaccination being taken into people’s place of residence to be vaccinated. This is being done by a combination of either the GP-led vaccination services or Sussex Community Foundation NHS Trust.
The roving service has been focused on vaccinating care homes for older people and have successfully covered 90% of care homes across Sussex. The remaining 10% were unable to be vaccinated due to outbreaks of COVID-19 and will be revisited after 28 days, in line with infection control guidance.
Health and care workers on track for jab by mid-February
In Sussex, we are on course to vaccinate the top four priority groups by mid-February, in line with the national target. This includes the 120,000 health, social care and other care workers across the system.
To date, over 60,000 NHS, social care, and other health care staff have been vaccinated in Sussex. With more sites and vaccine supplies now available, this number will continue to rise rapidly in the coming weeks.
The government’s ‘Green Book’ chapter on COVID-19 (from page 11) identifies the long list of health and care staff that are currently eligible for vaccination.
COVID-19 Vaccinations for patients and Sedlescombe and Westfield Surgeries
Covid Vaccinations have started at our vaccination centre at ETCHINGHAM VILLAGE HALL, PARSONAGE CROFT, ETCHINGHAM TN19 7BY. This GP led service will offer vaccine appointments to our registered patients in line with the national priority groups, starting with those who are over the age of 80. The surgery will contact you when it is your turn. Please wait to be contacted. The surgeries request that you do not call reception as they are very busy running our usual surgeries and organising the Covid vaccination clinics.
Our practice teams have been identifying their patients who are eligible at this stage and appointments will be booked in over the coming days.
We recognise that at the current time, with one site at Etchingham, some people will have to travel further than others to get their vaccination depending on where they live in the local area. We would like reassure everyone that there are discussions about further locations in the area and how the vaccination can be offered from GP practices. This is a fast moving programme and over the coming weeks, there may be the option to provide the vaccine from more sites across our communities.
The location of the GP-led vaccination service does not affect the speed by which people living in the Rural Rother area will receive their vaccination. The timing for when people will be able to get their vaccination depends largely on the availability of the vaccine and the priority group they are in.
Travel to your appointment If you are concerned about how you will travel to get your vaccination during lockdown please be aware that under government guidelines a family member or friend is permitted to take a person to their COVID-19 vaccine appointment, which is classed as an exemption as it is a ‘medical appointment’.
- Please click here for government guidance on how to travel safely.
- Please click here for information about community transport schemes that could be used for Westfield Residents.
In summary:
- The surgery will contact you when it’s your turn please wait until you are contacted. You are unlikely to be forgotten!
- You will be contacted as soon as an appointment is available.
- Please be patient and act on your invitation when it comes.
- When you go for your vaccination please do not turn up early for your appointment as arriving on time will help manage numbers at the site and keep everyone safe.
Largest COVID-19 vaccination centre in Sussex opens at Brighton Centre
Today a new vaccination centre has opened in Brighton to provide eligible people across Sussex greater opportunity to receive their vaccine.
People who are in the top four priority groups currently eligible to receive their vaccination will be the first to be invited to get their vaccine at The Brighton Centre. They will book their appointment through a national booking system and will receive their vaccine by teams from Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust, who are running the service.
The centre gives all those who are eligible another way to receive their vaccine, in addition to their local GP-led vaccination services. While the centre is based in Brighton and Hove, it is available for the wider population across Sussex and beyond.
Appointments cannot be booked directly with the Brighton Centre or through GPs and residents are asked not to contact the centre or Brighton and Hove City Council directly.
The national NHS booking service will be writing to eligible people living within 60 miles of the Brighton Centre providing them all the details they need to book an appointment online or over the phone. Anyone receiving a letter from the national booking service can choose whether to book an appointment at the vaccination centre, or wait until they are contacted by their GP for an appointment at their local vaccination service if that would be more convenient.
The centre will also be vaccinating eligible health and care workers. Health and care worker appointments have been taking place today, with the public booked in from tomorrow.
The launch of the vaccination centre is the latest step in the ongoing phased roll-out of the Sussex vaccination programme as we work to vaccinate everyone in the first four priority groups by mid February.
Mythbusting: My GP-led vaccination service has closed
As part of our ‘When will I get my jab’ campaign, we want to ‘bust’ some of the common myths we are hearing and today we are focusing on GP-led vaccination services, and when they are open. All of our GP led or local vaccination services are working extremely hard to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible with the vaccines they have available, and we expect all those in the top four priority groups to be vaccinated by mid-February.
The days that these services are open largely depends on the supply of vaccine from the national stocks. So not running the vaccination service everyday isn’t unusual at this time. Most local vaccination services are receiving confirmation of their delivery, then working to invite in people for that set number of vaccines, and then will open for dedicated days to use up their vaccine before it expires (for the Pfizer vaccine this is usually within a three day window).
GP practices are also working really hard at the moment to maintain both general medical services and the vaccination programme, and so will have teams back in their surgeries to ensure that can continue to provide the day to day care needed by their patients.
So if your local vaccination service doesn’t appear to be vaccinating one day, they will be back in their GP practices, providing care to patients, making appointments for their next sessions, and getting ready for when the service opens that week
Westfield Parish Council 