A NEW vaccination site has opened in Dorset as health chiefs prepare to ‘pull out all the stops’ to ensure the entire adult population is offered a booster jab.
There continues to be very high demand for boosters as the number of eligible people increases and the King’s Park vaccination centre is fully booked until Christmas.
The vaccination programme is already being delivered in more than 30 locations across Dorset including primary care networks, community pharmacies and vaccination centres.
A new pop-up vaccination centre has opened in Vespasian House, Dorchester – using office space usually occupied by NHS Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).
This is now offering appointments for both adults (via the National Booking System on weekdays only) and children (weekdays and weekends).
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The Dorchester centre is already extremely busy, and slots are being booked up quickly.
Around 30,000 boosters are given every week across Dorset, with 218,221 boosters administered as of November 30 - 57.9 per cent of the population.
Dr Andy Rutland, Dorset GP and clinical lead for the Dorset COVID-19 vaccination programme, said: “We are currently doing some detailed planning as we work through the requirements set out by the government and NHS England.
“It’s a significant undertaking to once more step up our roll-out to the levels we saw at the start of the vaccination programme and one of our biggest challenges is recruiting the right staff.
“We know that some people have struggled to get an appointment locally and we now need to pull out all the stops to expand the service.
“Please be patient while we set everything up – our staff are working incredibly hard and will continue to do their best for the people of Dorset.
“It has been a monumental effort to get the clinic set up at Vespasian House so quickly and I’d like to thank everyone involved including our local healthcare partners and the Vespasian House landlords, Redtale Holdings Limited.”
The vaccination centre at King’s Park in Boscombe is extremely busy and fully-booked until Christmas, though some cancellation appointments may become available.
More slots continue to be added all the time, but if the National Booking System doesn’t show the local centres this means all the available slots are currently taken.
Anyone who has experience of vaccinating can apply to be part of the vaccination programme iat: https://joinourdorset.nhs.uk/vaccinators/. More volunteers are also needed at the Dorchester centre – contact the Volunteer Centre Dorset to find out more.
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