All over 80s in Devon offered COVID jab appointment by end of this week
95.4 per cent of care homes in Devon had been vaccinated by last Sunday
Health chiefs remain confident that the top four priorities groups in Devon will have received their first Covid-19 vaccination by the mid-February target.
All over 80s will have been offered an appointment by the end of this week at the latest, while 95.4 per cent of care homes in Devon had been vaccinated by last Sunday.
Devon County Council’s Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday afternoon also heard that uptake of the vaccine had been ‘very high’ and that the county was getting its fair share of supply.
Darryn Allcorn, NHS Devon CCG Chief Nurse, told the meeting that the system focus is on ensuring that all those in the top four groups (over 70s, care home residents, health and care staff) are offered a vaccine by the middle of February, and that Devon is on target to hit that goal.
He added: “Across Devon as a whole, all over 80s will be offered an appointment but the end of this week, and then we are still on target with the trajectory and supply for all over 70s to be offered an appointment by Feb 14.
“Our roaming teams are going out into the rural communities and making sure we start the over 70s and over 80s who are housebound. All over 80s will definitely be this week invited everyone to an appointment and uptake has been very high.”
Sally Slade, Head of Adult Social Care, added: “We have vaccinated 95.4% of care homes in Devon by January 24. There were 12 homes we couldn’t do because they had significant outbreaks and we will follow them up shortly when we can.
“It has been a tremendous effort and there has been a high level of uptake, higher than expected, and the evidence is many of the care home staff have changed their minds when saw how keen the residents were for the vaccine.”
There are now five methods by which the vaccine is being rolled out across Devon.
All four of the county’s main hospitals – in Plymouth, Exeter, Torquay and Barnstaple – are giving the vaccination to priority groups in line with national guidance, while GP practices are working together in groups to set up local vaccination centres, and across the county, 20 centres are now in operation, serving all of Devon practices.
GP-led facilities are delivering the vaccine to residents and staff in care homes, while pharmacies have started to deliver the vaccine, with Westward Ho! being the first to come online.
And on Tuesday, the mass vaccination sites at Home Park in Plymouth, and Westpoint Arena just outside Exeter became operational with thousands of vaccines a day to be delivered.
At Wednesday’s Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital Trust Board meeting, Suzanne Tracey, the chief executive of the RD&E said that the Westpoint hub when operating at its peak could deliver 3,000 vaccines a day, but was currently at a lower level than that having just opened.
She added: “The hospital hub has been vaccinating since mid-December and vaccinating daily for over 80s, care home staff and health and social care staff. We have delivered around 14,000 vaccines so far and 9,000 RD&E staff has been covered, so a significant portion.
“We expect it to be in operation until June, and once we are through all the staff, we will look at further cohorts of patients across Devon to help.”