GP practices in the Vale of York have been working with local housing services and community providers to ensure that homeless people have been able to access the Covid-19 vaccine.

The targeted vaccination programme has been led by NHS Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), with practices based in York and Selby vaccinating people in their temporary place of residence, including rough sleeper accommodation.

York Medical Group and Scott Road Medical Centre, based in York and Selby respectively, have been vaccinating homeless people against the virus as part of the national roll out to ensure that as many people as possible are able to get the vaccine.

Zulf Ali, chief executive officer of York Medical Group, said: "At York Medical Group, we are working hard to vaccinate the homeless in our community.

"This is an important step towards ensuring that everyone who is eligible has the same access to the Covid vaccine.

"The success of this outreach programme is due to the dedication of our staff and working collaboratively with our partners."

Local housing services and community providers have played a key role in the effort by identifying and contacting people who are classified as homeless, along with volunteers who have supported the collaborative efforts of the vaccination programme.

Dr Nick Jackson, clinical director of Selby Town Primary Care Network, said: "Vaccinating homeless people has been a learning experience for us because those people really aren't visible on general practice registered lists."

General Practices will now continue to work together at scale and focus on delivery to provide a wider range of services to patients.