Hot Covid-19 Vaccine News

Spring 23 Booster Covid Vaccine

The NHS has launched the Covid Spring Booster campaign for People aged 75 years and older, residents in care homes for older people, and those aged 5years and over with a weakened immune system. Eligible patients should be offered an appointment around 6 months (and not before 3 months) since their last dose of vaccine.

Oakfield Surgery will be providing support to Westongrove patients aged 16 and over for the Covid Spring Boosters and inviting patients who are eligible for a Spring Booster via a text. If you do not have a mobile phone Westongrove Surgery will contact you directly – please wait for us to contact you.

The Spring Boosters will be offered at Oakfield Surgery, Oakfield Road, Aylesbury HP20 1LJ.

Vaccine on offer

Patients will be offered a booster dose of Sanofi vaccine for the Spring Boosters.

If you require another vaccine i.e. Astra Zeneca, Moderna, it will only be available from the Mass Vaccination Sites so you will need to contact 119 direct.

If you are between the age of 5 and 15 years old, please contact 119 direct.

Alternatively, patients are welcome to book their appointment via the National Booking System direct by contacting 119 and attend the local mass vaccination centres.

We will also be arranging visits for housebound and care home patients in due course. These will be offered by the Oakfield Surgery Local Vaccination Service.

For further information please go to A guide to the COVID-19 spring booster 2023 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

6th September 2022

There will be an autumn COVID booster vaccination programme running between September abd December 2022. Westongrove will be partnering with the local GP led hub to deliver these vaccines, and once final operational arrangements, including vaccine delivery dates, have been confirmed we will issue a further update.

This team will also be delivering COVID boosters to our care homes and housebound patients, and are liaising with us and the homes directly about this.

Information about the autumn booster programme can be found at GOV: Covid-19 Autumn Booster.

Drop-in clinics (first and second jabs)

If you are over 40 years and have not had a vaccination yet OR over 18 and need a second AZ jab – minimum four weeks after first dose OR not a permanent resident over 40 years of age, please see below:

Stoke Mandeville Stadium Vaccination Centre will be holding a walk-in clinic on Friday 4th June from 1000 – 12:30 and 14:30 – 17:00. Please arrive with details of Name, DOB and NHS number during these times.

Stoke Mandeville Stadium Vaccination Centre will be holding a walk-in clinic on Saturday 5th June from 09:30 – 1300. Please arrive with details of Name, DOB and NHS number during these times.

Get your NHS number online

The NHS updates the age groups that qualify, so please keep an eye on announcements in the media.

28th May Update

The GP Led Vaccination Centre at Stoke Mandeville Stadium has their last Pfizer clinic today, the 28th May, after today we will not be able to offer anymore Pfizer appointments.

Those who have not responded to their 2nd dose invite will have to be signposted to 119.

The GP led vaccination centre at the Stadium will finish on or around 19th June, therefore any patients who are having a 1st dose COVID vaccine delivered by this team between 28th May and 19th June, will need to arrange their second dose appointment at www.nhs.uk/…/coro…/book-coronavirus-vaccination/or call 119. As a GP surgery we will not be able to provide or book these second appointments.

As the GP led vaccination programme is coming to a close, we will only be updating you about the covid vaccine if there are any new changes.

Thank you to everyone who has worked at the vaccination centre over the past few months!

21st May Update

The GP Led Vaccination Centre at Stoke Mandeville Stadium has their last Pfizer clinic on 28th May, after this date we will not be able to offer anymore Pfizer appointments. Those who have not responded to their 2nd dose invite will have to be signposted to 119 once the 28th of May clinic is full.

The GP led vaccination centre at the Stadium will finish on or around 19th June, therefore any patients who are having a 1st dose COVID vaccine delivered by this team between 28th May and 19th June, will need to arrange their second dose appointment at www.nhs.uk/book-coronavirus-vaccinationor call 119. As a GP surgery we will not be able to provide or book these second appointments.

Our vaccination team have given over 60,000 vaccinations since Jan 2021 which is an amazing achievement, and all made possible by the many volunteers who have been involved, both clinical and non-clinical.

Huge thanks to everyone who has been part of this project.

18th May Update

We are working again with Hall Practice to ensure that all of their COVID vaccinations delivered next week are fully utilised.

This means we are able to invite our patients age 30-34 to book an appointment at Chalfont Community Hospital, via a text message that will be sent to them from The Hall Practice in the next day or two.

As the National Booking Line has now moved on to inviting patients age 37, we have not invited this cohort to avoid confusion!

Look out for posts on our Facebook page for more Covid-19 vaccine updates.

14th May Update

Odeon vaccination centre

The Odeon vaccination team are moving across the road to the Bucks New University site. Everyone with an appointment booked will receive a text message with all of the details and confirming that their appointment will go ahead at Bucks New University site instead.

The Hall Practice, Chalfont

We are now working collaboratively with The Hall Practice in Chalfont. This is an exceptional situation to the normal booking process as we are helping to ensure their Pfizer vaccines are fully utilised next week. This means that we have been able to invite patients aged 35-36 to attend for an appointment.

Patients will receive text messages directly from The Hall Practice, to attend a clinic next Wednesday or Thursday at Chalfont Community Hospital. Please take up this offer as soon as you can to help with the smooth running of everything.

This is also enabling us to offer Pfizer vaccines to those eligible patients who live with a household member who is immunocompromised age 39 and under, who were awaiting for an alternative to the Astra Zeneca vaccine.

This is a one-off project to ensure vaccines are not wasted.

All other patients should continue to book via the National Booking Service using 119 or the NHS website as we are not able to invite or book cohorts 10-12 in any other circumstance.

Who is eligible for a vaccine currently?

Patients age 37-39 are being called via the National Booking Service as of today. We are unable to book appointments for this cohort as the vaccination programme for the younger groups has moved on to a central booking system to allow us to focus on our normal services. As soon as we find out which age group can book their vaccination, we will also let you know but we are not being told in advance of general public messaging on this issue.

Once your age group is eligible than you can book you vaccine on-line, see details, below, or by calling 119.

Patients under 39 years old

Guidance around Astra Zeneca vaccines has now been updated so that any patient aged 39 and under who hasn’t already had a first dose of Astra Zeneca, should be offered an alternative vaccine.

Stoke Mandeville Stadium Vaccination Centre- GP Surgeries

We are now only offering COVID-19 vaccinations to those patients in priority groups 1-9 who have not yet had their first dose jab or are awaiting a second dose jab. Please do not contact us about vaccinations unless you are in one of these groups. You can check your eligibility here.

If you are in the priority groups 10 – 12 (people aged 49 down to 18) you can book your appointment via the national NHS booking service when your age group becomes eligible. This will allow you to find a suitable date and time at another site such as the Guttman Mass Vaccination Centre (or other large centre in a neighbouring county) and a participating community pharmacy.

Alternatively, people aged 40 – 49 and over who would like to book their first dose jab via the Stoke Mandeville Stadium GP Vaccination Centre, can send the following details via the following secure email: sms.vaccinations@nhs.net

Subject – Vaccination request

Full Name:

Date of Birth:

NHS Number:

Mobile Number:

Send to the following secure email: sms.vaccinations@nhs.net

Thank you, stay safe!

May 14th 2021 Update

A quick vaccine update!

We are now working collaboratively with The Hall Practice in Chalfont. We are helping to ensure their Pfizer vaccines are fully utilised next week, so we have been able to invite patients aged 35-36 to attend for an appointment.

Patients will receive text messages directly from The Hall Practice, to attend a clinic next Wednesday or Thursday at Chalfont Community Hospital.

It has also enabled us to offer Pfizer vaccines to those eligible patients who live with a household member who is immunocompromised age 39 and under, who were awaiting an alternative to Astra Zeneca. This is a one-off project to ensure vaccines are not wasted in agreement with the CCG. As a Practice we are not able to invite cohorts 10-12, all other patients should continue to book via the National Booking Service using 119 or the NHS website.
Thank you, we will be posting more covid updates tomorrow at 15:00.

May 7th 2021 Update

Westongrove has now invited patients who had their first vaccine between 5th – 9th March to book their second this week, and as always are working our way through the lists of patients who haven’t received a text message because we don’t have their mobile phone number, or haven’t responded to the invitation yet.

Westongrove has recently written to all of our immunocompromised patients following NHSE guidance, and has invited their household contact over 16 years of age to book a COVID vaccination.

This has been rather challenging for us trying to book those patients aged under 30 years old who cannot have an Astra Zeneca vaccination. We have been notified that there is currently no additional Pfizer stock for new first doses at the stadium vaccination centre, so we are unable at the moment to book appointments for these patients and are awaiting further guidance on this.

Patients are able to call 119, but some patients are being told to contact us. As soon as we have further information, we will share this. Please continue to email us as westongrove.flu@nhs.net with these requests, so that we are able to inform the CCG of potential numbers of vaccines required.

If you are aged 40 and over in England, you are now able to book your Covid jabs, you will be sent a text which will direct you to the national booking service.

If you do not receive a text, you simply need to head to the NHS vaccine website where you will be able to book yourself in. Use this link here: www.nhs.uk/book-coronavirus-vaccination

As always, stay safe and help protect the NHS.

April 30th 2021 Update

Westongrove has recently written to all of our immunocompromised patients following NHSE guidance, and has invited their household contact over 16 years of age to book a COVID vaccination. This has been rather challenging for us trying to book those patients aged under 30 years old who cannot have an Astra Zeneca vaccination. We have been notified that there is currently no additional Pfizer stock for new first doses at the stadium vaccination centre, so we are unable at the moment to book appointments for these patients and are awaiting further guidance on this.
Patients are able to call 119, but some patients are being told to contact us. As soon as we have further information, we will share this. Please continue to email us as westongrove.flu@nhs.net with these requests, so that we are able to inform the CCG of potential numbers of vaccines required.

People aged 40 and over in England are now able to book their Covid jabs, you will be sent a text which will direct you to the national booking service. If you do not receive a text, you simply need to head to the NHS vaccine website where you will be able to book yourself in. Pease visit NHS: Book or manage your coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination to do this.

Since the vaccine rollout began in December, about 34 million people have had at least one dose in the UK. This equates to nearly two-thirds of the adult population. More than 14 million people have now had two Covid jabs.

The government plans to offer a first vaccine dose to the rest of the adult population by the end of July. Once we know more abut the first vaccine for those under the age of 40, we will let you know.

The NHS currently uses three vaccines against coronavirus:

• Pfizer-BioNTech
• Oxford-AstraZeneca
• Moderna

And the government has ordered an extra 60 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as part of its plans for a vaccination booster programme in the autumn.

As always, stay safe and help protect the NHS.

April 23rd 2021 Update

At Westongrove we are continuing to move through out vaccination programme smoothly.

This week we have invited patients who had their first dose on 12th and 13th February to book their second vaccination appointments. We hope to be moving on to invite those who were vaccinated on or around 19th February next week, but this will depend on vaccine deliveries. Please look out for a text message from us but be assured that we will work through the list of patients who don’t have a mobile to book them manually over the telephone. This just takes a little time.

The vaccination team based at Bucks New University are moving to the Guttman Stadium, as the University will be opening again soon. Anyone who had an appointment booked at the University will receive a message letting them know that their appointment still stands – same date and time – but please now attend the Guttman Stadium instead.

As a practice we have received some requests whether patients can have the Pfizer vaccine instead of the Astra Zeneca vaccine. We continue to use the vaccine supplies allocated to us, we can only give people what we have been allocated, secondly your first and second vaccine has to be the same.

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) have stated that the Astra Zeneca vaccine is safe for 30+ and the chief executive has stated “We are confident in our decision to authorise the vaccine in this age group and everyone in this age group who has received the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine can be reassured that it works and is safe.”

Like all vaccines, the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine had to meet strict standards of safety and effectiveness before it was approved for use in the UK. It has gone through the same extensive clinical trials and safety checks that all licensed medicines have to complete. These showed that the vaccine is safe and offers very high levels of protection against the effects of Covid-19.

As always, stay safe and watch this space for further updates! We are regularly reviewing comments on our Facebook page but do not always have the capacity to respond to each individual comment.

For those who do not have Facebook, please remind them that all-important covid-19 updates will be uploaded to our website: www.westongrove.com on a Friday at 3:00pm.

April 16th 2021 Update

The vaccination process at Westongrove has continued to run smoothly. Our team are continuing to give second vaccines to housebound patients and those in learning disability homes this week. We hope to have completed all of this in the next week or, so which is a fabulous achievement.

You may now be aware of the news that everyone 45 years and over can now book their Covid-19 vaccination directly through the NHS website. This has resulted in the website crashing in recent days! Please do not phone us about this as our reception team are very busy and will not be able to book your appointment for you.

We remain focused on completing the 2 vaccinations for everyone in the top 9 priority groups. We are not able to book appointments for anyone outside of those groups. This is designed to increase the capacity of the whole of general practice in England to deal with all of the outstanding normal work associated with supporting people’s health and well-being that has been so pressurised as a result of the huge vaccination effort.

If you are coming up to the 11-week mark after your first vaccine and have not received a text to book in your second one, please email us at westongrove.flu@nhs.net and we will be able to send you a link to book your second appointment.

For those of you under 50 looking to book your Covid-19 vaccination please do so at www.nhs.uk – Book or manage your coronavirus vaccination.

We are expecting that it will be regularly updated with the relevant eligible age groups as all adults are vaccinated over the next few months.

Please book through the website when your times comes and avoid contacting us to book your vaccination as we will not be able to book your appointment.

Hopefully this will enable us to be more accessible in supporting all of your other healthcare needs.

As always, stay safe and watch this space for further updates! We are regularly reviewing comments on our Facebook page but do not always have the capacity to respond to each individual comment.

For those who do not have Facebook, please remind them that all-important covid-19 updates will be uploaded to our website: www.westongrove.com on a Friday at 15:00.

April 9th 2021 Update

Second Vaccines

Westongrove have started to move onto the second round of Covid-19 vaccines. We have approximately 200 patients who are due their second vaccine, but we have not had a phone number for these patients, so we are having to manually book them.

If you are coming up to the 11-week mark after your first vaccine and have not received a text to book in your second one, please email us at westongrove.flu@nhs.net and we will be able to send you a link to book your second appointment.

Astra Zeneca COVID-19 Vaccine

There has been a lot of discussion around the Astra Zeneca vaccine and the link to blood clots, which may have caused some worry for our patients. All our under 30’s will be offered an alternative vaccine, but that does not mean you should be worried if you have already had the Astra Zeneca vaccine.

The UK medical regulators have stated that ten deaths out of 10 million people vaccinated is a one-in-a-million chance.

That’s roughly the same risk as getting in a car and driving for 250 miles and dying in a road accident on that journey.

Here are a few of some F.A.Q about the Astra Zeneca vaccine

• If you are in cohorts 1-9 and have had your first dose of the Astra Zeneca vaccine, irrespective of age, you will also receive the Astra Zeneca vaccine as your second one.
• If you are aged 30 and OVER and you have still not received your first vaccine, the JCVI has weighed up the relative balance of benefits and risks and advise that the benefits of prompt vaccination with the Astra Zeneca vaccine far outweigh the risk of adverse events for individuals 30 years of age and over and those who have underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of severe COVID 19 disease.
• If you are UNDER 30 and have had your vaccine booked on or after the 9th of April through the National booking line, your appointment will be cancelled centrally, and guidance given as to what happens next. If any patients should wish to go ahead with an AZ vaccination after discussion, they are able to do so.
• If you are UNDER 30 and have booked your first vaccine via your GP surgery or local hub, you will be rebooked into another clinic offering Pfizer vaccines over the coming weeks. Hubs are awaiting news of how they will access additional Pfizer vaccines for these patients.
• Hospital hubs should offer any available Pfizer vaccines as first doses to those in cohort 1-9 age under 30 or with contraindications.

As always, stay safe and watch this space for further updates! We are regularly reviewing comments on our Facebook page but do not always have the capacity to respond to each individual comment.

For those who do not have Facebook, please remind them that all-important covid-19 updates will be uploaded to our website: www.westongrove.com on a Friday at 15:00.

April 6th 2021 Update

Westongrove have now started to invite patients for their second vaccinations and have this week started giving the second doses at our care homes. We aim to invite and vaccinate at around the 11-week mark, based on vaccine stock availability.

If you are in cohort groups 1-9 and have not booked yourself in for a vaccine, please email westongrove.flu@nhs.net to do so.

Similarly, if you do not want to receive the vaccine, please email westongrove.flu@nhs.net so that we can respect your wishes and stop inviting you.

When we are told to move onto cohorts 10-12 by the NHSE, we will let you know and start inviting you for your vaccination.

It is really important to get your first and second vaccination. We, as a nation, are relying on individuals to be vaccinated from COVID-19 to form herd immunity from the virus. The longer the virus is around more strains can occur, making it more difficult to contain.

If you have had the first vaccine and were unwell with it, we absolutely recommend that you should have your second vaccine. One dose gives you limited protection, but the second dose gives you much better protection. As you have already had the first vaccine, you may not have the same reaction the second time round.

So please, if you’re invited for your vaccine, book yourself in for it. Being vaccinated protects not only you but your loved ones and the wider community.

In the meantime, please stay home, protect the NHS and save lives.

March 26th 2021 Update

At the time of going to press 14,303 Westongrove patients have now had their COVID Vaccination which is 47% of our patient population.

Westongrove will start to book in second vaccinations over the next few weeks. Patients will be invited approximately 11-12 weeks after their first vaccination and will be sent texts as before and we will contact anyone without a mobile via letter or telephone call as before.

If you do not wish to have a vaccine, please email us at westongrove.flu@nhs.net to let us know, so that we can respect your wishes and stop inviting you.

If you have any more questions about the second Covid-19 vaccine, please comment down below and we will review them in another second vaccine Q&A next week.

As always, stay safe and watch this space for further updates! We are regularly reviewing comments on our Facebook page but do not always have the capacity to respond to each individual comment.

For those who do not have Facebook, please remind them that all-important covid-19 updates will be uploaded to our website: www.westongrove.com on a Friday at 15:00.

Second Covid-19 vaccine update F.A.Q.

How do I book my second vaccine?

Westongrove will start to book in second vaccinations from April. Patients will be invited approximately 11-12 weeks after their first vaccination and will be sent texts as before. We will contact anyone without a mobile via letter or telephone call as before. Please don’t telephone us to chase your second vaccination, we will contact you when it is your turn.

Do I have to have my second vaccine at the same vaccine hub I went to for my first?

NHSE Guidance supported by our CCG, is that patients should go to the same vaccination centre for both first and second vaccines. If they had their first at one of the mass sites, they would already have their second appointment booked, if they had it at the stadium, we will contact them for the second dose as before.

Will I get the same type of vaccine as before? (e.g., Pfizer or AstraZeneca)

Yes, you will get the same vaccine as before.

Do you recommend we get the second vaccine if we were sick with the first one?

Yes, we absolutely recommend that you should have your second vaccine. One dose gives you limited protection, but the second dose gives you much better protection. As you have already had you first vaccine, you may not have the same reaction second time round.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vaccine – NHS Website

Can I go back to normal life after having my second vaccine?

It typically takes about 2 weeks for your body to build up immunity to the virus once you have had the second vaccine. However, you will still need to follow government guidelines after you have had the second vaccine.

If you have any more questions about the second Covid-19 vaccine, please comment down below and we will review them in another second vaccine Q&A next week.

A quick reminder, next week (22nd March- 28th March) we will not be holding any vaccination clinics this week, as we have to make adaptions to the car park because the stadium will be opening up to the public again in April. Anyone that is eligible for a vaccination can book an appointment by calling 119 for this week.

In the meantime, please stay home, protect the NHS and save lives.
Stay safe

5th March 2021 Update

Currently, 9364 of our Westongrove Patients have received their first vaccination, which is 30% of our patient population. Our clinics on 5^th and 6^th March are now full and we have another clinic opened up for Saturday 13^th March.

As a practice, we are continuing to contact patients in priority groups 1-4 and 6 who have not yet had their vaccine. We are also encouraging anyone who has received their text with a booking link to book their appointment. If you have not got the text, are having difficulties booking, or you wish to decline the vaccine, please email us at westongrove.flu@nhs.net and we will help.

Within our cohort 6 group, 900 of our patients have not booked their vaccine. We encourage everyone who is invited for a Covid-19 vaccine to take this opportunity to protect yourselves, your family, friends and neighbours.

Public Health England has confirmed that a single shot of either the Oxford-AstraZeneca or the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid jab reduces the chance of needing hospital treatment by more than 80%. In the past few weeks, the number of Covid admissions to intensive care units among people over 80 in the UK has dropped to single figures. This is an amazing response to the vaccines.

We are all in this together as a community, the more people who get vaccinated, the better protected we all are against this virus.

This afternoon we will also start to invite our patients in priority group 5, 65-69 year olds, to book their vaccine.

Currently we have not had any notification about when we can start inviting people in priority group 7, 60-64 year olds, but as soon as we know, we will let you know on Facebook and on our website www.westongrove.com.

We have had a few comments about our standby list and asking if people can be added to it. At the moment we still have outstanding patients within the existing cohorts who will be contacted if there are any spare vaccines towards the end of any vaccination clinics. This list includes new care home patients, new residential home staff members and new frontline healthcare workers.

As always, stay safe and watch this space for further updates! We are regularly reviewing comments on our Facebook page but do not always have the capacity to respond to each individual comment.

We will be providing regular updates on supply issues in our FAQs and Facebook posts. Please check those after you have made a comment. The FAQs will be updated on our Facebook page and website every Tuesday and Friday at approximately 3pm.

Thank you for your continuing understanding and support.

In the meantime, please stay home, protect the NHS and save lives.

Stay safe.

4th March 2021 Update

Apologies for a delayed post this week, we have been rather run off our feet providing the support and care that has been required from us.

We can now confirm that he have invited everyone we have identified as being in priority group 6 to book their first Covid-19 vaccination appointment.

We encourage everyone who is invited to get their Covid-19 vaccine and take this opportunity to protect themselves, your family, friends and neighbours. Public Health England has revealed that a single shot of either the Oxford-AstraZeneca or the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid jab reduces the chance of needing hospital treatment by more than 80%. In the past few weeks, the number of Covid admissions to intensive care units among people over 80 in the UK has dropped to single figures. This is an amazing response to the vaccines.

We are all in this together as a community, the more people who get vaccinated, the better protected we all are against this virus. Thank you to those of you who have been through the booking/vaccination process and “thank you” for sharing your experiences and insights on our Facebook page.

There are currently around 1000 free appointments in total at the vaccination centre for this weekend. We would love to vaccinate as many of our patients as we can. Out of our 2600 patients within priority group 6, roughly 900 people have not booked their appointment or not responded to our invites via text or phone call. If you have received a text, please respond to it or let us know using our email westongrove.flu@nhs.net if you have received the vaccine elsewhere, or you are declining the invitation.

If you think that you are in priority 6 and haven’t heard from us then please email us at westongrove.flu@nhs.net and we will then work through any emails that we receive to see if you are eligible to be invited.

We will not be wasting one single dose of this precious vaccine. We have a stand-by list from the eligible priority groups who have not been vaccinated. This provides a supply of people from the priority groups being vaccinated who can attend at short notice. Should the need arise, they will be contacted and asked to attend within a given timescale. Please do not contact us to be added to the standby list. We will actively refresh it on the basis above from eligible priority groups as the need arises.

As always, stay safe and watch this space for further updates! We are regularly reviewing comments on our Facebook page but do not always have the capacity to respond to each individual comment.

For those who do not have Facebook, please remind them that all-important covid-19 updates will be uploaded to our website: www.westongrove.com, on a Tuesday and a Friday at 3:00pm.

2nd March 2021 Update

Is the vaccine safe?

Yes.

While there will be different vaccines available, no one will receive a vaccine that hasn’t been properly approved and shown to be safe.
Each vaccine will have gone through trials to ensure the risk of serious side effects is low. However, as with other vaccines such as the flu vaccine, there are some common side effects.

These could include:

• A sore, ‘heavy’ arm where you had your injection.
• Feeling tired.
• A headache.
• General achiness or mild flu-like symptoms.

For a small proportion of people, their glands might swell. If this happens, you’re advised to take paracetamol.

If you do experience any of these side effects, they’re likely to last no longer than a week. But if they do get worse or you’re concerned you should call NHS 111 and explain your symptoms and let them know you’ve had a vaccination.

Any side effects you experience can also be reported to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (MHRA) Yellow Card Scheme.
Serious reactions to vaccines are uncommon but can happen. The MHRA has advised that people with a significant history of allergic reactions – either to medicines, vaccines or food – don’t receive the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. In this case you may be offered an AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine. If you’re concerned, speak to your healthcare professional for further advice.

26th February 2021 Update

We continue to work our way through inviting everyone in priority group 6 for their Covid-19 vaccinations.

As we explained in our post on Tuesday the criteria for priority group 6, 16-64 year olds with certain clinical conditions and carers, are complex and continue to undergo change based on advice from the vaccination experts advising the government.

We have a further supply of vaccination arriving next week and will be running a vaccination clinic at Stoke Mandeville Stadium on Saturday March 6th.

We are aiming to complete our invitation by text to everyone covered by the current definitions over the next few days and will update everyone on the situation in our routine Covid-19 vaccination post on Tuesday 2nd March.

Please wait for that update before contacting us with any queries about whether you are in priority group 6 or not. We are managing an unprecedented number of phone calls at present and wish to be available for all routine and urgent calls as well as all the additional vaccination calls.

In the meantime we are double checking whether everyone in cohorts 1-4 has been invited, as the criteria for these cohorts were recently updated. We will be inviting anyone who has not yet been invited. We continue to work our way through vaccinating everyone who is housebound.

We are concerned to hear that some people are not contacting us with symptoms that might be due to a serious underlying condition. You may have seen the news headline about people who have “delayed GP cancer checks because of Covid”.

Covid: Half with cancer signs didn’t contact GP in first wave

We just wanted to remind everyone that we are open for all and here to help with your concerns. We have been posting regular updates around various cancer issues in particular. Please do contact us if you have concerns related to any of the things that we have asked you to look out for in those posts.

Thank you to all of those of you who have been using the Ask NHS app for your health queries. We are learning that it works better in some situations than others and are actively reviewing how to make the whole process work even better for all. We appreciate it isn’t for everyone but it does provide excellent advice as to whether your particular new symptom or concern needs our support or advice. If it does then you can then book yourself in directly for us to contact you about it.

Remember hands, face, space and stay safe.

19th February 2021 Update

We are pleased to report that over 7600 Westongrove patients have now received their first Covid-19 vaccination, which is more than 25% of our registered population. This has been a huge team effort from invitation to vaccination and your encouragement through the messages that you have left for us is much appreciated by us all.

A further allocation of the Oxford/Astra Zeneca vaccine means that we can continue to vaccinate the remaining people who are housebound that we haven’t been able to get to yet. This is likely to be an on-going piece of work over the next couple of weeks as we juggle with vaccine supply and staff availability but we will get to everyone.

We continue to update our Covid-19 FAQs on our Facebook page and website. If you have asked a question but not received an answer or have other queries related to the Covid-19 vaccination programme please check our FAQs or other Covid-19 posts as the answer should be there somewhere!

Vaccination supply continues to be the rate limiting factor to how quickly we are able to vaccinate everyone. We are continuing to invite our 16-64 year olds with underlying health conditions, priority group 6, and are now up to “J” (possibly a little further on as your read this). Take up is going a little slower with this group than the previous priority groups.

Please remember that we are genuinely only properly protected when all of us are protected. This reduces the levels of circulating infection which as well as meaning fewer ill people also reduces the risk of new variants emerging that might be less well covered by the vaccines.

If you are in one of the top four priority groups and have not had your vaccination please call us to book it as soon as possible. Matt Hancock MP, Secretary of State for Health, and Rob Butler MP reinforced this very important message at his recent visit to our vaccination centre:

https://twitter.com/DHSCgovuk/status/1360570582966939650

Health Secretary and Local MP visit Stoke Mandeville Stadium vaccination hub

Please do respond to your invitations as quickly as you can.

There is a vaccination clinic running at the Stoke Mandeville Stadium this Saturday and one currently being booked up for Friday 26^th February. As always, as more vaccine is available to us we will book more clinics.

The central vaccination clinics, like the one at the Odeon in Aylesbury, continue to invite people in priority group 5 by letter. Thank you for those of you who have been through that booking process for sharing your experience and wisdom in your comments on our Facebook page.

19th February Second Covid-19 Vaccine Update

We are aware that the central vaccination clinics are booking both the first and second vaccination appointments for people who attend there.

At present we are only being given notification of which vaccine and how many vaccines we will receive for our local Stoke Mandeville Stadium vaccination clinic with about a week’s notice. We have chosen not to book people’s second appointment, whichever vaccine they receive, to avoid having to cancel hundreds or thousands of appointments should vaccine supplies not be available to us.

You will receive your second invitation from us in the same way that you received your first invitation. If you wish to provide us with a mobile number of a smart phone to enable you to book the appointment more easily once you receive the invitation then please email us at westongrove.flu@nhs.net

There is further information in our FAQs about the invitation process.

We will be working to the current government guidelines that people should receive the same vaccine that they had for the first injection. We have a record of which vaccine people have had, wherever they had it, so will know exactly which clinic to invite them back to for their second vaccination.

Research is going on to evaluate whether having two different vaccines might actually trigger a better immune response from the body and give a higher level of protection against the disease. It’s too early to know whether this is the case or not at present.

As always, stay safe and watch this space for further updates!

16th February Update – Covid-19 Vaccination

At the end of last week, we were able to start inviting priority group 5 for vaccination, people aged 65-69 years, by inviting our 69-year-olds registered with Westongrove.

This week there is a change in tactic in the coordination of invitations by us and the central vaccination sites. Up until now we have all be inviting people from the same priority groups, which has caused a lot of duplication and sometimes confusion.

This week the centrally organised vaccination sites, like the one at the Odeon in Aylesbury, will take over vaccinating priority group 5, those aged 65-69 years old.

We will be inviting priority group 6, 16-64 year olds who are clinically vulnerable and adult carers (those who are in receipt of a carer’s allowance, or those who are the main carer of an elderly or disabled person whose welfare may be at risk if the carer falls ill). Please see our FAQs for more information on carer’s eligibility. As a practice, we will only be able to call you as a carer if we have you coded as a career. With approx. 3000 people in this group, it may take a few weeks for us to invite everyone based on vaccine supply. Please be patient, we will invite you as soon as we are able to do so.

There is more information on priority group 6 as determined by Public Health England available on the ‘COVID-19 vaccination first phase priority groups’ page on the Gov.uk website.

We have now uploaded the updated computer searches for priority group 6 and started sending out invitations to surnames A – C and potentially surnames beginning with D, depending on the vaccine up-take by our patients.

We have about 3000 people in priority group 6 registered with us at Westongrove and have been allocated 677 vaccination appointments at our usual Stoke Mandeville Stadium vaccination centre for Friday and Saturday of this week.

As always invitations will initially be via SMS text which have a direct link to book your first appointment. If you receive a text asking you to book an appointment for your Covid-19 vaccination but you are unable to do that on your phone, then please call the surgery during opening hours and we will book the appointment for you manually. If you can’t get through straight away, we thank you for your patience; just try again at another time, until we are able to help you.

Alternatively, you can forward the text to someone that you trust who has a smartphone. They can then book your appointment on-line on your behalf.

Please don’t worry if you do not have a mobile – you will be contacted by phone. If you do not pick up the first time, we will try again and again until we are able to make contact with you. If necessary we will send you a letter.

Thank you for your continuing patience and waiting to be invited for your vaccination before calling us. Nobody will miss out on an invitation to book an appointment for the vaccine.

We are regularly reviewing comments on our Facebook page but do not always have the capacity to respond to each individual comment. We will be providing regular updates on supply issues in our FAQs and Facebook posts. Please check those after you have made a comment. The FAQs will be updated on our Facebook page and website every Tuesday and Friday at approximately 15:00.

Thank you for your continuing understanding and support.

In the meantime, please stay home, protect the NHS and save lives.

Stay safe

12th February Update – Covid-19 Vaccination

We are continuing to visit our housebound patients to vaccinate everyone by the end of the day on Monday 15th February. We are having to leave a lot of messages on people’s phones as we are unable to reach them. If you know of someone who is housebound and has not been vaccinated please check with them if they have received a message and whether we are waiting to hear back from them to book their vaccination.

We will always call and arrange a date for vaccination before we visit to vaccinate.

As well as having vaccinated all care home residents we are also expecting to have vaccinated all of the residents of our learning disability homes by the end of today.

We are receiving lots of queries about the next phase of the vaccination programme at present. We will be moving to priority group 5, 65-70 years old, as soon as vaccination slots are available to us.

We are expecting vaccine supplies to fall nationally in the coming weeks so are not able to provide any further information on when this will be until we receive confirmation of vaccine being available to us.

As always we will share more information on future clinics as soon as we can.

We are regularly reviewing comments on our Facebook page but do not always have the capacity to respond to each individual comment. We will be prioritising providing regular updates on supply issues in our FAQs and Facebook posts. Please check those after you have made a comment. The FAQs will be updated on our Facebook page and website every Tuesday and Friday at approximately 3 pm.

Thank you for your continuing understanding and support.

In the meantime, please stay home, protect the NHS and save lives.

Stay safe

9th February 2021 Update – Covid-19 Vaccination

With less than one week to go before the government’s target of inviting all those in priority groups 1-4 for a Covid-19 vaccination we remain on target to achieve that.

We have vaccination clinics booked all day Friday 12th February and all-day Saturday 13th February at our Stoke Mandeville Stadium vaccination centre. It was good to see so many of you there this weekend despite the arctic conditions! Westongrove staff and volunteers were also present in force.

If you are aged 70 or over and haven’t yet booked or received your Covid-19 vaccination, please call us to do that. Alternatively you can use the national booking system or you can call 119 free of change between 7am and 11pm.

Vaccine supplies remain the rate limiting factor in all of this and we understand that allocation of the available vaccine is being prioritised to support the country wide vaccination of people in priority groups 1-4.

The vaccine is distributed in batches of 100 or 1000 vaccinations, increasing the challenge of getting exactly the right number in the right place. Please take up whichever vaccination centre invitation works for you to maximise the total number of people who are vaccinated across all vaccination centres available to us.

We are continuing the work of vaccinating our remaining 210 housebound patients. Vaccinating them all before the target of February 15th is a challenge that we are doing everything in our power to rise to! It takes about 15 minutes for a team of two to administer each vaccination and we have to use approved cool bags to transport the vaccines. As a result, we can only have so many staff working at any one time. If everything goes to plan, we will do it!

For any frontline Health and Social Care workers, including allied healthcare professionals, living or working in Buckinghamshire who have not been vaccinated please contact bucksccg.healthstaffvaccines@nhs.net to arrange your vaccination.

We are still awaiting news locally as to when we will receive vaccine for priority group 5, 65- to 70-year-olds. There are approximately 1500 people that fit that criterion across Westongrove. Once we have more information on this, we will post that in one of our regular updates.

We are regularly reviewing comments on our Facebook page but do not always have the capacity to respond to each individual comment. We will be prioritising providing regular updates on supply issues in our FAQs and Facebook posts. Please check those after you have made a comment. The FAQs will be updated on our Facebook page and website every Tuesday and Friday at approximately 3 pm.

Thank you for your continuing understanding and support.
In the meantime, please stay home, protect the NHS and save lives.
Stay safe

5th February 2021 Update – Covid-19 Vaccination

We are pleased to report continuing steady progress over the past week in inviting, booking and vaccinating people in the top 4 priority groups. As a result we are increasingly confident of achieving the government’s target of offering vaccination to all these people by mid-February, as long as supplies hold.

In total, we have now booked over 3018 vaccination appointments, and rising, at our Stoke Mandeville Stadium vaccination centre.

Across all of the local vaccination sites 2575of our registered patients have now been vaccinated.

We still have 830people, and falling, who have not booked a vaccination yet and we will be contacting them by phone or letter.

We have been able to secure a small supply, enough for 55 vaccinations in total, of the Oxford/Astra-Zeneca vaccine ahead of schedule. This has enabled our complex care team to complete the vaccination of all care home residents and start vaccinating those who are housebound. We are still expecting further supplies of the Oxford/Astra Zeneca vaccine to be able to continue vaccinating people who are housebound throughout next week.

With more vaccination appointments available to us across Buckinghamshire than ever before we are now inviting more and more of the remaining people in priority group 4, 70-75 year olds and those who are clinically vulnerable. If you haven’t had an invitation from us directly, or from one of the other vaccination centres covering Buckinghamshire, you will be hearing soon!

As always we are contacting people by text, phone call and letter, as needed.

• If you receive a text on a smartphone that is connected to the internet then you can book your appointment directly on-line. We are receiving lots of feedback about how easy this is.
• If you receive a text invitation but do not have a smart phone please call us to book your appointment. Alternatively you can forward the text to someone you know and trust who has a smartphone and they can use it to assist you booking it on-line through their phone.
• If you receive a text invitation on your mobile phone but someone you live with aged 70 or over, and registered with Westongrove, has not yet been invited then they should call us to book their appointment as well.
• If you do not have a mobile phone we will call you and if we are unable to reach you despite several attempts we will send you a letter asking you to call us.

The other vaccination centres are sending invitations in the post asking you to book an appointment here:

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/book-coronavirus-vaccination/

You may receive more than one invitation. Please take up the one that is best for you. If we have been informed that you have already had you first Covid-19 vaccination we will not invite you again. There is a small delay in us receiving this information so our apologies in advance if we contact you with an invitation after you have been vaccinated.

We are still working to the government’s timetable of the second vaccination being given 10-12 weeks after the first. If we receive any different instruction to this we will of course share that with you.

At present we are waiting further instructions with respect to the government timetable for the remaining priority groups 5 to 9. We are expecting that towards the middle of February and will publish more information as it becomes available.

You can find more information on all things related to the Covid-19 vaccination programme here as it is published: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/coronavirus-vaccine/

We are regularly reviewing comments on our Facebook page but do not always have the capacity to respond to each individual comment. We will be prioritising providing regular updates on supply issues in our FAQs and Facebook posts. Please check those after you have made a comment. The FAQs will be updated on our Facebook page and website every Tuesday and Friday at approximately 3 pm.

Thank you for your continuing understanding and support.

In the meantime, please stay home, protect the NHS and save lives.

Stay safe

2nd February 2021 Update – Covid Vaccine