Pfizer vaccine: NHS hospital hubs will be at centre of mass vaccination effort
By the middle of next week the first people in the UK to be vaccinated against coronavirus could be getting their inoculations.
The NHS is preparing to coordinate one of the largest vaccination efforts in British history as the health service leads on a nationwide effort to protect millions of citizens.
Across England leading hospitals will be designated as vaccine hubs to start immunising NHS frontline staff and patients. Hub hospitals will be responsible for vaccinating their own staff and making sure neighbouring hospitals can get the jab to their own staff. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will follow a similar pattern.
The first deliveries of the vaccine to hospitals could come as soon as Tuesday. Because the vaccine needs to be stored at cold temperatures, the 53 hospital hubs will be the main centres for delivery. Once thawed the vaccine can be kept in a fridge for up to five days for use locally.
The initial efforts will be focused on those patients at highest priority including those aged over 80 as well as care home residents and carers. The rest of the population will follow in the coming weeks.
An initial delivery of 800,000 doses, enough for 400,000 people, will be delivered in the next week with more expected before the year end.
Come January the NHS will be at the forefront of a major effort to vaccinate the rest of the population starting with elderly groups and those deemed to be at clinical risk from the virus due to other health conditions.
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The vaccine is given in two doses, three weeks apart. The UK has ordered enough doses of the Pfizer vaccine to inoculate 20 million people, a third of the population, which could be completed in the first half of 2021.
It is being manufactured in Belgium with each batch checked as it is delivered before being transported in specialist cool boxes to keep the vaccine in a useable state.
As the vaccination programme is widened out it is expected to include mass vaccination drives in school halls and leisure centres as well local community pharmacies an GPs.
Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccine deployment minister, said: “The NHS has decades of experience in delivering highly successful vaccination programmes and has put in an enormous amount of work to get ready to roll out a Covid-19 vaccine to those most in need as quickly as possible.
“Once extensive quality checks have taken place, it can be transported to vaccination sites across the UK and carefully unpacked ready for vaccinations to begin this month, with large-scale vaccination happening in the new year.”
Which hospitals have been designated as vaccine hubs?
Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Croydon University Hospital NHS Trust
Dartford & Gravesham NHS Trust
Dorset County Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust
East Kent Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (Colchester Hospital)
Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Guys & St Thomas NHS Trust
James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Kings College Hospital - Princess Royal University Hospital
Lancashire Teaching Hospital Trust
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Leicester Partnership NHS Trust
Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Medway NHS Foundation Trust
Mid and South Essex Hospitals Trust
Milton Keynes University Hospital
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital
Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust
North Bristol NHS Foundation Trust
North West Anglia Foundation Trust
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
Portsmouth Hospital University Trust
Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust
Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust
Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust
Stockport NHS Foundation Trust
St George’s University Hospitals NHS FT
The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
University College Hospitals Trust
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
University Hospital Coventry & Warwickshire
University Hospitals Derby Burton NHS FT
University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust
University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust
United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust
West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust
Wirral University Teaching Hospital
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
Yeovil District Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
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