Sixth Covid vaccine site to open in Sunderland

Issues about the delivery of the doses had been raised by members of Sunderland Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) at the weekend, as one of its leading GPs said the teams were ready to treat 19,000 people in coming days, but had no sign of supplies to the first four centres it set up.

But now the CCG has said that has not caused any disruption to the appointments planned, with the schedule lined up with the delivery of the vaccines, which are given to patients as quickly as possible, in keeping with the cold conditions they must be kept in before they are used.

All sites, with the exception of Millfield Medical Centre, which began the project this week and will welcome its first patients on Thursday, January 14, have completed their batch of doses, with all the centres taking deliveries this week.

Millfield is the sixth centre after Riverview Health Centre, Bunnyhill Primary Care Centre, Houghton Primary Care Centre, Washington Primary Care Centre and Grindon Lane Primary Care Centre the first to run.

The number of patients covered so far has not been made available.

David Chandler, chief officer and chief finance officer at NHS Sunderland CCG, said: “Vaccination schedules are dependent on the availability and delivery of doses.

“Healthcare professionals are working at a remarkable pace to administer the vaccine to as many people as possible and occasionally this will mean that some sites will need to wait for further deliveries before they can resume again.

“All of our vaccination sites have been active within this last week and one final site is going live on Thursday, January 14.

“Further supplies are being delivered this week and next week, so that vaccinations in Sunderland can continue.”

The North East’s campaign to immunise patients received a boost this week when the mass vaccination sessions launched at the Centre for Life in Newcastle, with the over 80s and health care workers first in line to get their jab.

The CCG has asked people not to contact their GP for an appointment and says the NHS will contact people directly when it its their turn.

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