Bristol vaccine roll out "on track" to hit mid-February deadline
A North Somerset GP has told us we should "absolutely" have all vulnerable groups vaccinated within weeks
A North Somerset GP says we're on track to have all vulnerable people in our area vaccinated by mid February.
Shruti Patel - a partner at Mendip Vale surgery in Langford - says just over 10 percent of people across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire have already had a jab.
We spoke to her shortly before the total number of people vaccinated across the country surpassed nine million, with 86 percent of over 80's across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire having been given at least one dose according to the latest figures.
"I think in BNSSG we have been fantastically lucky to have a GP community who have really embraced the whole vaccine agenda," she tells us.
"As we talked about, across BNSSG (Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire) we've actually vaccinated just over a tenth of our population, which is amazing."
All about hard work
Shruti tells us a great deal of the success has been down to the flexibility of staff.
"People have worked over weekends, over unsociable hours, certain of my colleagues have gone in on days like New Years Day...at odd times like at 7 o'clock at night in terms of vaccinating our care homes because that works better for care home staff.
"I was doing home visit vaccinations at 7 o'clock in the morning the other day with a volunteer driver and one of our nurse practitioners.
"So people have gone above and beyond to just come in and really make this work to try and get as many patients vaccinated as we possibly can and without that coming together I don't think it could have happened in the same way."
Shruti adds in one instance staff received a batch of the Pfizer vaccine on a Sunday and within one hour they were vaccinating vulnerable residents at a care home.
"Everyone has recognised this is just a different ball game if you like, in terms of everyone just piling in to make sure this happens."
We're "on track" for mid-Feb deadline
Last month the government declared their target to see everyone in the top four priority groups given at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine by the middle of February.
They are all care home residents and staff, all those aged 80 and over along with frontline health and social care workers, people aged 75 and over, people aged 70 and over and those classed as clinically extremely vulnerable.
Doctor Patel tells us that across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire we are on track to hit that target.
"I have every confidence that we will get there here in BNSSG," she says.
"We are really, really on track to deliver that across the patch.
"We are working really hard where there are patient populations that are a little bit more vulnerable, little bit harder to access perhaps, to try and help each other to make sure we all get there at the same time, in terms of our patient cohorts."