Croydon Covid-19 Vaccination Programme Update

HADRA has received the following communication from Croydon Council, which we have been asked to pass onto residents.

We wanted to update you on the strong start we have made rolling out the biggest vaccination programme in NHS history in Croydon and across South West London. Our priority remains vaccinating the most vulnerable people in our communities and our front-line health and care professionals. We are keen to continue to build confidence and optimism around the vaccine, but also to manage people’s expectations about when they might receive the vaccine. Across South West London, NHS Trusts and GP practices are currently facing large volumes of people contacting them wanting to book their Covid vaccination, so we would appreciate your support in helping us to share some of the messages towards the end of this update to manage these expectations locally.

We are keen for people to know that the NHS will let them know when it is their turn to have the vaccine. It is important not to contact the NHS for a vaccination before then. Please wait to be contacted.

How and where are we delivering the vaccine to Croydon residents

Croydon Hospital vaccination hub

• Croydon Hospital was one of the country’s first vaccine hubs and we safely secured our place in history by vaccinating one of the first people in the world against COVID-19 on Tuesday 8 December 2020.  This week the hospital is expanding to become a seven day a week service to allow us to protect more people faster.

Croydon Primary Care Networks – GP lead vaccinations

• Croydon GP practices are working together in groups called Primary Care Networks to deliver the vaccine to people in the community.
• Croydon now has three Primary Care Networks delivering vaccinations at dedicated sites across the borough. Vaccinations may not take place at residents’ usual GP practice, but at a primary care vaccination site (led by GPs and practice nurses)
• A further three sites will start vaccinating this week and next week which will bring us to 100% coverage of our Croydon GP registered population.

Please see below the vaccination sites that are currently working in Croydon.  Further sites for our remaining GP practices will start vaccinating next week which will mean we then have 100% coverage for our Croydon GP registered population.  We will share this information with you once these sites are open and established.

Who are being prioritised to receive vaccines first

The government has set out the challenging ambition of vaccinating all those in the top four priority groups by February 2020 as set out in the advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

At this time, the vaccine is being offered in some hospitals to:

• care home residents and people who work in care homes
• people aged 80 and over
• health and care workers

We will continue to work hard to build confidence in the vaccine with local residents and we would appreciate your support with this.

At this time, we expect the majority of over 80s to have been offered the vaccine by the end of January, though over 80s will be able to come forward and receive the vaccine throughout the Covid-19 vaccination programme. Our vaccine sites across South West London are using national systems to record information of the individuals they have vaccinated and we will share this with you once it is available.

Priority groups for the vaccine

• In line with national advice from the Joint Vaccination and Immunisation Committee (JVCI), in these first four weeks we have been delivering the Pfizer vaccine to the priority groups of people over 80 and care home staff
• The vaccination programme is phased – we need to make sure that the most vulnerable people get it first, so the NHS will be advising people in priority groups when it’s the right time for them to come forward for the vaccine.
• To reduce waste, vaccination sites have been using unfilled appointments to vaccinate healthcare workers who have been identified at highest risk of serious illness from Covid-19.
• Increased supply and the approval of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine means that vaccination can now immediately be expanded to all frontline health and social care workers.

Care home staff, residents and front line care workers

• Before the first vaccines were delivered in early December we began to work with care homes across all our boroughs to reach out to care home staff as a top priority group
• Around 4,000 care home workers out of about 14,000 across South West London have come forward and we will continue to work hard to encourage them to do so.
• We are working closely with council colleagues to coordinate vaccine appointments for front line social care workers including front line domiciliary and agency staff

Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine approval and new guidance on the second dose

• The approval of the UK-developed and manufactured Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine provides a major boost to our plans to offer protection to those who would benefit most as quickly as possible.
• This new vaccine is easier to transport and store, which means it is perfect for helping to vaccinate many more people in our communities – including being able to more easily vaccinate residents in care homes and for the over 80s who are housebound in their own homes.
• Some of our PCN sites will begin to receive supplies of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine from this week
• The Government has decided to increase the gap between the two doses of the COVID-19 vaccines from three to four weeks to up to three months.
• This new guidance on the period between doses is important as it means that we will be to get the maximum benefit for the most people in the shortest possible time and will help save lives.
• We will now be focussing on giving the first dose of the vaccine to as many people and front line health and care staff as possible

How people are being invited to have their Covid-19 vaccine appointments

• The NHS will continue to contact people directly to invite them to receive the vaccine – when it is their turn, they will receive an invitation for an appointment.
• This may be via the phone, text message or letter either from a Croydon GP practice or there is likely to be a national booking system coming on line.  When we have further details of this we will let you know.
• This will be the same for those patients who are housebound and would require a home visit.  If those people who are housebound are offered an appointment at a centre, they should talk to their GP or respond to the contact details in their invitation.
• As only a proportion of PCN sites are live at this time, many over 80s will not yet have been contacted.
• We expect the majority of over 80s to have been offered the vaccine by the end of January, though over 80s will be able to come forward and receive the vaccine throughout the Covid-19 vaccination programme.

 Next steps to further expand the programme

 Large Vaccination Centres

• As well as hospital hubs and primary care sites, we are working to bring on line community vaccination centres to help further expand our capacity to deliver the vaccine programme. We hope to be able to share information about sites in Croydon in the coming weeks.
• Across South West London we have been running a large scale recruitment campaign to recruit teams to manage and deliver vaccines at these vaccination centres across our six boroughs. We are currently running a volunteer recruitment campaign which has generated a good response.

We are in the process for modelling our capacity for delivering vaccines week on week and the ability of each of our hubs to continue to sustain the fantastic work they have done so far over the length of the programme. We continue to work closely with NHS England to take advantage of as many potential deliveries of both vaccines as they are able to supply our local vaccine hubs in the coming weeks.

Information on the programme

The public have an important part to play to help us with this programme of work, we would be grateful for your help in sharing these core messages with your constituents:

• please don’t contact the NHS to seek a vaccine, we will contact you
• when we do contact you, please attend your booked appointments
• and please continue to follow all the guidance to control the virus and save lives.

Please see below and attached some key materials that I hope will help you with your queries:

• FAQs for the South West London programme attached
• Four public health leaflets with helpful information:

• Why do I have to wait for my COVID-19 vaccine
• What to expect after my COVID-19 vaccination 
• COVID-19 vaccination guide for adults 
• COVID-19 vaccination guide for healthcare workers 

 How we are engaging with local people to increase vaccine confidence

• We know that in Croydon some of our communities are more vaccine hesitant than others groups.  Our experience of the flu vaccination programme shows us that two of our primary care networks in the north of the borough are particularly keen to increase uptake with their patients.
• We are engaging with local communities to give people the chance to ask local experts about the vaccine so that they can make informed decisions and we can understand any concerns they may have
• In partnership with the Croydon BME Forum, the Asian Resource Centre and Croydon Council, we have now held four engagement sessions attracting over 600 participants and hope to further build on this engagement with our partners in the coming weeks and months
• Clinical experts making up the panels have including Dr Nnenna Osuji, Deputy Chief Executive and Medical Director of Croydon Health Services, and Dr Agnelo Fernandes, GP Borough Lead for Croydon and Rachel Flowers, Croydon Director of Public Health.
• We are also exploring opportunities with other Croydon community partners and leaders to reach deeper into our communities to build public confidence and improve uptake.

We do hope that this briefing has been helpful, we will share updates with you in future.

Best wishes,

Matthew Kershaw
Chief Executive and Croydon Placed based Leader for Health