Today I was very pleased to visit Newcastle College to see the GP-led vaccination centre there. Huge thanks must go to Newcastle College for making their site available - with ample space available for six separate vaccination stations and the gymnasium being used for the 15 minute wait after vaccination.
I would like to thank Dr Omar Hussain (pictured below) for inviting me, as well as all of the doctors and nurses for their hard work at this time.
Everything was running extremely smoothly and I spoke to a few residents who had received their jab, who were all full of praise both for the staff and the organisation.
This centre is helping to roll out the vaccine for the following GPs within the Newcastle Central Primary Care Network:
Higherland Surgery
Lyme Valley Practice
Milehouse Medical Practice
Miller Street Surgery
The Village Surgery
Wolstanton Medical Centre
All the GP networks in Newcastle now have supplies of the vaccines, and the Newcastle College site will be receiving a double delivery next week.
I am more than happy at the pace of delivery locally. Nationally, we delivered over 320,000 vaccinations yesterday and we are very much on target to reach the Government's aim of vaccinating all of the top four priority groups (around 15 million people) by 15th February.
For anyone within the top two priority groups (including all over 80s) who have not yet heard from their GP, the NHS should be contacting you in the near future. Locally we expect to have completed this group by the end of January at the very latest.
