Vaccination centre opens at Newbury racecourse
Last updated 14th Jan 2021
Newbury racecourse has seen some great races over the year, but never a race for survival.
Today hundreds of elderly people, many of whom haven't been out of their houses for the past year, made the journey to a new mass vaccination centre at the racecourse.
Of course this isn't a race, but the faster the vaccine makes it into the arms of the general public the quicker we can all return to normal life.
Nine GP surgeries in west Berkshire have united under the co-ordination of the Berkshire West Clinical Commissioning Group to make the centre a reality.
The Pfizer vaccine is being used this week, but the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine will also be used - particularly for care homes and housebound patients.
The centre hopes to be able to give the vaccination to up to 1,400 people every day as it reaches full capacity next week.
Dr Abid Irfan, Chair of Berkshire West CCG, said he was confident they'd have enough vaccine to get through the first priority groups:
"This is really an amazing time, we've got all nine GP practices in Newbury to come together and work collectively and in essence what we've done is kind of set up our own mass vaccination centre"
He added:
"We're starting off seeing about a 1000-1,200 a day, but we can ramp that up. Full capacity I would expect throughput to be between 1,400-1,500, but it depends on the vaccine as well. The Astra Zeneca one doesn't need mixing so that could be even quicker"
Harriet Collins from Newbury Racecourse told us how proud they were to be hosting the vaccination centre:
"There's something so heartwarming about the vaccination hub here at Newbury racecourse. I had a walk round the area this morning and it was so positive to see some of the first patients arriving and it was just a really heartwarming move forward. It's really important the racecourse can play that part in the community"
It's not the first time the racecourse has tried to help out its community during the pandemic. It served as a primary care unit for the NHS, and helped with Age Concern meals on wheels in the first lockdown.
Harriet says it's an ideal place for the hub:
"The racecourse has a huge abundance of space and that's obviously really important in terms of social distancing, putting in place the necessary protective and safety measures. So I think it's a very natural venue to have a vaccination centre here and it's a really positive thing to do"