How the vaccine roll-out in Sunderland will work - transport arrangements and how you will be contacted

Jabs developed by German pharmaceutical firm BioNTech and its US partner Pfizer are due to start being administered in the city from the week beginning Monday, December 14.

And although it will only be on offer in limited locations, NHS chiefs have promised to lay on transport for those at the top of the priority list who would otherwise struggle to access it.

“In the first stage of the COVID vaccine rollout, we will be using the Pfizer vaccine, the one which is a little bit trickier to administer,” said David Chandler, deputy chief officer and chief financial officer at Sunderland Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)

“It’s a new vaccine and has to be stored at -70C and you have to defrost it and use it within three days.

“The initial plan is that between December 14 – 21 we will be administering that vaccine at six sites across Sunderland.”

Chandler was speaking at a meeting of Sunderland City Council’s Health and Wellbeing Board, which was held by videolink and broadcast via YouTube.

Each vaccine site has so far been allocated 975 doses.

A priority list has been drawn up by a Government panel, identifying care home residents and staff, as well as the wider over-80 population, among the first in line for the new treatment.

But delays in booking front line NHS staff in has prompted anger from some hospital bosses.

Ken Bremner, chief executive at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Sunderland Royal Hospital and South Tyneside Hospital, called the oversight a ‘kick in the teeth’.

In the meantime, the vaccine programme’s managers have urged families to be patient and wait to be contacted by their GPs, rather than piling unnecessary pressure on the system.

Chandler added: “Members of the public don’t need to contact a GP practice – the practice will contact you.

“That will allow us to keep our phone lines and communication lines open, but please be reassured you will be contacted directly.

“Over 80s will receive one jab and then 21 days later there will be a second.”

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