Professor Mike Holmes tells in his latest column for The Press how public plaudits are boosting morale at York’s vaccination centre as staff brave freezing weather to deliver record jabs

THE Vaccination Centre has helped the NHS reach a number of milestones over the last few days.

We know our practices have played a big part in helping the Government meet its target of offering the Covid vaccine to everyone over the age of 70 by February 15.

This is all of the top four priority groups which are determined nationally.

In York, we know we have vaccinated well over 90 per cent of our over 70s and are making excellent progress with priority group – 65-69 year olds.

We had a record vaccination day on Saturday – offering vaccination to almost 2,300 people at Askham Bar.

I want to personally thank those who came down at the weekend and braved the freezing conditions to get their vaccination.

The NHS now celebrates and passes through the 15 million people vaccinated landmark, which is an amazing achievement.

This region alone has vaccinated half a million people and the York Vaccination Centre has done around 65,000.

We are welcoming national TV crews to the centre on Monday - yesterday -to mark the occasion, where they will speak to some of the people who have delivered the service on the front line.

I am constantly astounded by the drive and passion of our teams who have helped us to achieve this success.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; this is a city-wide, cross-sector effort with everyone working together to protect our communities.

We will have all heard of the challenges regarding the distribution and delivery of vaccines but in the week leading to the 15th February we received over 4,500 Pfizer vaccines at Askham Bar – these of course have to be used within a few days so our teams rolled their sleeves up and got to work.

We put a new booking system in place and delivered over 6,000 vaccines to York residents in six days.

It is a phenomenal effort – and whilst every single member of the team did a superb job, I want to mention our volunteers and our traffic marshals who braved the harsh conditions to ensure that people got to the right place as efficiently as possible to have their vaccines.

Let me be clear though, despite us talking big numbers and statistics, we know that every one of these numbers is a person, and that every single person has their own story, their own needs and their own challenges – we will not forget that as we welcome you to the service.

It makes it all the more special when we get messages from you.

The comments and messages we receive via email and on social media have really boosted morale:

“Exceeded expectations which were already high! “ Gwen

“My mum had here vaccinations today on her 70th birthday – thank you to the super-efficient team.” Martin

“Thank you so much for everything you guys are doing! I received my first does last week after almost a year of shielding.

“It was a very surreal and emotional experience and I was in awe of how well organised everything was and how lovely and helpful the team were, even though it was freezing cold. You’re all doing an amazing job. Thank you just isn’t even enough!” Lucy

Now that the 15th February has arrived, we move into the next priority groups – 5 and 6.

This is by invitation only so we can manage the supplies of the vaccine fairly.

You will be contacted by letter or by text. We are finding that text is the most efficient way to contact you.

It is really important that your practice has an up to date mobile number and consent to use it.

Practices will be setting up mechanisms for you to update your records with your mobile numbers over the next week or two.

Not only will this help now but it will also help in the future.

Of course, if you don’t have a mobile number do not worry; we will continue to use the traditional ways of contacting you and you will definitely not miss out.