More than 1,000 staff from Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor have received their Covid-19 vaccination this week, after Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board opened third Hospital Vaccination Centre.
Hospital Vaccination Centres at Glan Clwyd Hospital and Wrexham Maelor Hospital began vaccinating before Christmas
During the early stages of the vaccine roll out, all Health Board plans were reviewed given the potential disruption to the supply chain of the Pfizer vaccine. Once this supply issue was resolved, they quickly adapted their plans in order to take receipt of additional vaccine trays at short notice. This created a short-term logistical challenge, but these issues have since been resolved.
The Health Board now want to reassure people across North Wales that they have a robust and well-considered plan to administer the vaccine to all of their priority groups as quickly and as safely as possible.
A statement from the Health Board said: ”We have commissioned significantly more Mass Vaccination Centre and Hospital Vaccination Centre sites than any other health board and have well developed plans in place to introduce Local Vaccination Centres and Mobile Vaccination teams.
“Before Christmas, vaccinations for care home workers and high-risk frontline staff began from Ysbyty Enfys Bangor. As such, We are very well placed to accelerate our rollout of the vaccine, taking advantage of the greater volumes we expect to receive in the coming weeks.
“We continue to ask for people to be patient as we work through the priority groups, following national guidance.
“This week we will see a significant increase in our plans to roll the vaccine out across North Wales. We now have both the increased availability of vaccines as well as more staff and vaccination sites to help us reach more people, more quickly.
“We are also working on plans to involve primary care colleagues in delivering the vaccine, which will be particularly important given the large area we cover in North Wales. In addition to this, the military will also support the delivery of our vaccination programme from this week.
“This week we have the initial delivery of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine and enhanced supplies of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine. Initially we were in line to receive five trays of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, but on request have been given seven trays, equivalent to 8,050 doses based on six doses per vial. This will allow us to vaccinate at pace this week and reflects the work in bringing online six vaccination centres to date.
“To date, only a relatively small number of care home residents and those over 80 years of age have been vaccinated in North Wales. This will significantly increase with the newly announced arrival of the Oxford vaccine. Joint planning with Local Authorities will ensure priority delivery of this vaccine into care homes. This week we have 5,000 doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine to vaccinate care home staff and residents, as well as hospital inpatients and those over the age of 80.“
Over the initial two weeks in January 2021, our priority groups for vaccination include:
- Care home residents and staff
- People aged over 80, including hospital inpatients
- High risk frontline healthcare staff
- Primary care staff
- Welsh Ambulance Service staff
This week, 300 people aged over 80 will be vaccinated at Mass Vaccination Centres and arrangements have been made to contact individuals manually by telephone. This is intended to test the system and capability prior to expanding the service week-by-week.
The arrival of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine is intended to focus upon two cohorts initially, those aged over 80 who are inpatients across acute and community sites and care home residents. It is anticipated that about 650 inpatients will be vaccinated this week.
Moving forward, the intention is that a large number of over 80s will be vaccinated through primary care partnership working and mobile vaccination teams, predominantly through Local Vaccination Centres (LVCs) and GP Practices.
