Barcroft Medical CentreThe Castle Practice, Barcroft Medical Centre and St Melor Practice, have been working together since the beginning of January to deliver Coronavirus vaccinations to our local populations at Tidworth Leisure Centre. We have now been responsible for delivering over 20,000 vaccines. This is a huge achievement which would not have been possible without the support of the team at the Leisure Centre, Tidworth Council staff, a dedicated team of Volunteers, our Suppliers, the support of Military Medical Centre personnel and our brilliant Practice Teams.
The delivery of this service has not been without its challenges. Constant changes at short notice, new systems and processes, increasing demand has stretched everyone involved. They have also been hugely rewarding and positive and we thank all those who have made them happen, including all our patients who have made each clinic so rewarding.
Practices have to balance the need to run these clinics alongside their responsibility to continue to deliver healthcare to the community, the daily demand has escalated to almost unprecedented levels.
Primary Care was originally asked to help vaccinate the most vulnerable patients; across Wiltshire and this has been hugely successful. As we have moved into the under 50yr olds with no underlying conditions cohorts – many practices opted out of delivering first doses with Mass Vaccination Centres and Pharmacy run centres (e.g. City Hall, Salisbury and Ludgershall Memorial Hall) taking over. They can only be booked via the National Booking System.
As a group of practices, we felt it was important to continue to offer vaccinations locally for our patients, we have continued to offer 1st vaccinations wherever possible alongside our clinics for 2nd vaccines. Running clinics has been increasingly challenging as staffing clinics is becoming more difficult, but we feel it is important to offer you local vaccination where possible.
We will hold vaccination clinics on 11th and 25th June, also 16th July. These will be primarily for 1st vaccinations for eligible patients but we will also have availability for patients due second vaccines with both Pfizer and AstraZeneca.
All three of the remaining clinics can be booked via the office on 01980 880399.
The 16th July will be our final clinic so if you have your 1st vaccine with us in these clinics, you will need to book elsewhere for your 2nd vaccine via the National Booking System.
We apologise profusely to those patients affected by recent cancellations of clinics – forced by staffing issues. These decisions are not taken lightly and were unavoidable. We apologise for any inconvenience.
If you need any assistance in booking vaccination appointments please contact our dedicated booking office on 01980 880399 Monday to Friday 9am – 5 pm, who will do their best to help you.