Following the release of guidance regarding COVID 19 booster vaccinations from the JVCI and NHS England we would like to advise patients of our plan going forward.
Launceston and Tamar Valley Primary Care Network practices (Launceston, Callington and Gunnislake) have been approved to manage local community based booster vaccination clinics at Callington Town Hall and Launceston College.
We are hoping to start our booster vaccination programme in early October but we are still waiting for patient invitation reports from our clinical system provider. As soon as these are available we will release clinics on a weekly basis for booking.
We will be sending patients an SMS invitation with an online link to enable them to choose the appointment slot they can attend. We will update you when the appointments go live.
Our patient advisors are extremely busy with acute requests, eConsults, tasks, patient queries and telephone calls; we are asking patients to use the invitation link that we will send you instead of ringing us if at all possible.
We urge patients to come forward if we do not have a mobile phone number on record for you.
Who is eligible?
All patients that were in the original cohorts 1-9 and that finished their primary dose (vaccinations 1 and 2) more than 180 days ago are eligible for a COVID 19 booster vaccination. The guidance states:
“JCVI advises that for the 2021 COVID-19 booster vaccine programme individuals who received vaccination in Phase 1 of the COVID-19 vaccination programme (priority groups 1 to 9) should be offered a third dose COVID-19 booster vaccine.
This includes:
- those living in residential care homes for older adults
- all adults aged 50 years or over
- frontline health and social care workers
- all those aged 16 to 49 years with underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk of severe COVID-19 (as set out in the green book), and adult carers
- adult household contacts of immunosuppressed individuals”
JCVI also advise that:
“The booster vaccine dose is offered no earlier than six months after completion of the primary vaccine course “
What vaccine will you be offered?
We have been told to prepare to receive Pfizer-BioTech vaccine, if patients are unable to have this vaccination you may need to go to a mass vaccination clinic to be given a different vaccine. We do not have any further information about this at the moment.
You will be able to have a COVID 19 booster vaccination and an Influenza vaccination at the same appointment. If you have already had your 2021/22 flu vaccination we will contact you to book just a COVID vaccination. If you do not wish to have the influenza vaccination but you would like the COVID 19 booster vaccination we will contact you to make an appointment.
If you have a COVID 19 booster or Influenza vaccination query, from Monday 20th September please use our website to send us a message (under reception and enquiries). We will endeavour to reply to you within 3 working days. Please do not ring us if you have an enquiry unless you do not have access to the internet as this will add to call wait times for all patients.
To summarise; we will advise patients via our website and on Facebook when our COVID 19 booster vaccination appointments are live for bookings. This is likely to be w/c 20/09/2021. We are able to give influenza and COVID 19 vaccinations at the same time and anyone that has had a flu vaccination already will be invited in for a COVID booster if they are eligible. Patients will need to be 180 days (6 months) post 2nd COVID vaccination/ primary course to have a COVID booster vaccination.
Many thanks
Tamar Valley Health