14/1/21
Today I was invited to see the work that is going on at the Halton Stadium and met with Dr Hurst and Chris Patino of HBC. The stadium is being utilised as a hub for numerous aspects of the Covid response in Halton.
The large tent structure outside is a drive through vaccination site for people who have been contacted to be vaccinated who would struggle to walk into the vaccination centre. They are vaccinated in their cars by health professionals. The logistics of the drive through are managed by Halton Borough Council staff. Today they told me they expected to achieve 200 people being vaccinated in their cars.
Inside the stadium, the table tennis centre has been turned into a vaccination centre. It was impressive to see how this was being run by the Primary Care Network (GPs). Recently retired GP, Dr Hurst is in charge of the centre and he told me that there has been a great collaborative team effort between the NHS and the Council to get the vaccine rolled out here. Both at the stadium and at the Brindley.
There are staff ringing people whose turn it is to be vaccinated, some of whom have come out of retirement to assist with the effort here. Every single person assisting with this effort – the car park stewards, the admin staff, the nurses, the GPs, the catering staff and everybody else involved should be very proud of what they are doing to help us.
I was told they expected to vaccinate 800 people in the centre today, bringing the total with the drive through, to 1000 people vaccinated today at the stadium. By the end of this week it is hoped that the majority of over 80s should have received their vaccination and the majority of care homes here.
I also saw Halton’s PPE hub and school food parcel hub, which are also in the stadium. I am very impressed with the organisation of both of them by council staff – nearly 2 million pieces of PPE items have been distributed to date.
I would like to put on record my thanks to the GPs, the NHS staff and Halton Borough Council staff for their efforts in the Covid Response here.
I encourage everybody who can, to take up their opportunity of being vaccinated when they are contacted with an appointment, I will be taking up mine when I am eligible.
