VIDEO: Behind the scenes at Dorset County Hospital's Vaccine Hub
Watch how the Covid-19 vaccine is stored
Last updated 10th Dec 2020
Dorset County Hospital is giving us a look behind the scenes into the hard work going at their coronavirus vaccination hub.
A new video, released by the hospital, shows the complicated process for defrosting and administering the vaccine.
It's taken 6 weeks to prepare the hospital for the first vaccines, which were administered this week.
Logistically, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine presented a problem for hospitals because it must be kept below -70 degrees Celsius for it to work effectively.
Dorset County Hospital has risen to it though, and has started immunisations just 7 days after the vaccine was approved in the UK.
Vaccines have to be removed from the freezer 3 hours before they can be administered and are left to defrost slowly overnight, based on estimated requirements for the next day.
Fergal Nolan Operational Lead Technician said:
"It's taken probably about 6 weeks of intense planning. We've had lots of changes along the way as more information became available about what the vaccine does and how we can store it and how we handle it.
"We've had to train our staff from scratch on how to use ultra-cold freezers, dealing with products at -70 and dealing with dry ice, which is a bit of a challenge."
He added that he's honoured to be part of the scheme.
"It's one of these types of events that happens once in a lifetime and it really is unusual to get involved in a pandemic of this scale, it is literally once in a lifetime.
"It is a great honour for Dorset County to have been chosen as a vaccination hub to be able to provide this service to our staff, and our other NHS colleagues and patients in West Dorset.
"So it makes me proud to be involved in this process, and to be able to return normality to the country."