Following the Prime Minister’s announcement on 12 December, health and care partners have been pulling out all the stops to get more vaccines into arms, with thousands of extra slots made available around the county.

Between 13 and 19 December around 66,000 jabs were given across Dorset (some sites have yet to report their numbers so this is likely to be higher). This compares to 42,000 administered in the week before that.

Among those were 1,000 vulnerable people who are housebound, with around 160 more in this group to be vaccinated in the coming week.

The main activity in the expanded programme last week was:

1. Extending the hours of the two existing vaccination centres at King’s Park Hospital, Bournemouth and Vespasian House, Dorchester to cover 8am to 8pm.
2. Setting up a third centre at Sentinel House, Poole (Dorset HealthCare’s headquarters). This opened for NHS staff on Friday 17 December and is now available on the NHS national booking system for the public.
3. A walk-in pop-up centre run by Shore Medical (PCN) at the Territorial Army Centre in Wallisdown, Poole gave around 900 doses in a day.

“This has been an incredible effort by the NHS, with support from all our partners, to step up this programme even more,” said  Dr Andy Rutland, clinical lead for the vaccination programme. “It’s been wonderful to see local people responding so well and coming in for their jabs.”

GP-led clinics and pharmacies (sites shown here) are also increasing the slots available, with a speedier through-put possible now the 15-minute wait post-vaccination is no longer required.

This week University Hospitals Dorset is running a clinic with booked appointments in its new health village in Beales department store, Poole.

In areas of the county where there is insufficient capacity, additional pop-up clinics are being planned – organisers are continually assessing take-up and availability and adapting arrangements.

Dawn Dawson, director of Nursing, Therapies and Quality at Dorset HealthCare said: “We now have over 180 additional staff in the pipeline to become vaccinators. These staff are being onboarded and trained so that they can be deployed where needed across the system.

“We really can’t thank everyone enough – our incredible staff who are working so hard, our lovely volunteers who make the experience so positive and all the local people who have come forward for their jab.

“Please encourage your friends and family to come forward – we are ready to give them their dose of the life-saving vaccine to help protect Dorset’s communities.”

The best way to arrange your vaccination is to book it using the NHS national booking system – new appointments are being put on all the time so keep checking for one near you.

Once capacity and bookings are assessed each day, last minute walk-in availability may be available at some sites. Health and care organisations will release these on social media (follow @DorsetHealth and @DorsetCCG on Twitter and Facebook).