Dorset doctor recalls first covid jabs joy, one year since first vaccine administered
It's been a year since the first covid jabs were delivered here
Last updated 8th Dec 2021
It's been precisely a year since the first jabs were administered.
Since then, 755,070 jabs have been administered in Dorset including 146,585 booster jabs.
A Dorset GP has been describing his first day of vaccinating as one of the most emotional moments of his career.
Dr Andy Rutland told Greatest Hits Radio Dorset:
"We had queues of very elderly, vulnerable people coming to see us who hadn't been out for the whole of 2020, since the start of the pandemic, really in tears as we vaccinated them.
"It is actually one of those things that will stay with me."
NHS staff across the county gave up their own personal time to deliver the 755,070 jabs according to Andy Rutland who says staff have clocked up countless hours of overtime this year.
Dr Rutland said:
"My own network looks after approximately 60,000 patients and we've had between 30 and 50 additional members of staff on short term contracts offering that support.
"Also our volunteer workforce who are the marshals, answering questions, and we've had probably upwards of 50 volunteers dipping in and out of helping us, some literally every weekend.
"The beginning was entirely wartime spirit. We were in a position where we were foregoing a lot of our normal work and we were just getting on with vaccinating and getting that job done."
Andy says early on in the campaign there was a war time spirit where staff didn't give any second thought to how many extra hours they were working. But there's been a change as staff have realised the campaign won't be finished any time soon, and the more routine services have caught up with surgeries.
"I think as the reality has set in during the 12 months that this is a long term process, and also the reality of getting the country back on it's feet health-wise.
"I think we've moved on from the war time spirit and I think we're now just really working at maximum capacity and seeing that a little bit as the way things are going to be going forward."
Dorset CCG has launched a campaign to help ease the pressure by calling for more vaccinators to help rollout the campaign once more.
They're also focusing on opening more clinics to help deliver jabs due to low appointment availability.