MORE than 1,000 patients a week are set to receive Covid jabs from a new clinic run by pharmacists in a town near York.

Citywide Health, York’s independent pharmacy group, has been commissioned by  NHS England to provide a Covid vaccination service directly to the public from its new clinic in Haxby.

It will become the first community pharmacy in York and  North Yorkshire to provide the service, which will involve vaccinating over 1,000  patients every week and will be launched on February 25.

Pharmacist director Richard Harrison said the service will provide easy access to local residents and complement York's big vaccination centre on the former Askham Bar Park & Ride site, which has been open since December.

He said the Haxby clinic would be based in a former Boots pharmacy in The Village, across the road from the medical centre, and the aim would be for it to open seven days a week.

It would only be giving the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, because the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine had to used within a limited timescale and patients also had to wait 15 minutes afterwards just in case they had an allergic reaction, which wasn't practical in the clinic.

Mr Harrison said six of Citywide Health’s pharmacists have already been busy at Askham Bar, where he had been appointed as chief pharmacist in November and had since helped oversee the  vaccination of more than 60,000 patients to date.   

 "Citywide Health are honoured to have been commissioned to deliver this important  service in the community," he said.

"As a group of seven pharmacies in Haxby,  Huntington, Poppleton, Tower Court (Clifton Moor), Water End, Bishopthorpe Road  and Fulford, they are the best placed pharmacy provider in York to deliver this  service. 

"It is hoped that Citywide Health will roll out the service to all its pharmacies  in York in the coming months." 

He said anyone wanting to volunteer to help support Citywide Health’s Covid vaccination  clinics should register their interest, and details such as their availability and whether they are trained vaccinators or have administrative or secretarial skills, by going to https://forms.gle/3Gde24KnSLGrgWeM9.  

He added that patients would be able to book when their cohort became eligible and would then have a choice on the national booking website of going to the Haxby clinic or the national vaccination centre at Askham Bar, depending on which was more convenient for them.