Flu / Covid Vaccinations UPDATE

Flu Vaccinations

We have now taken delivery of our first batch of flu vaccines, as you may have seen in the news our original delivery date was pushed back due to national supply issues. Our teams have worked hard to re-arrange those patients affected by this delay, if you haven’t been contacted then please attend your appointment as planned.

Now we have our confirmed delivery schedules we are able to open up more flu appointments for patients to book into at both our Brixham & Galmpton surgeries from 18^th of October.

Eligible patients include those aged over 50, patients under 50 with a chronic disease (such as COPD, diabetes, severe Asthma, Chronic Heart disease) carers & people who are pregnant.

Appointments are available to book via online access (Patient access/NHS app/Evergreen Life etc). Or patients can call the Practice and select the option for our dedicated flu line which is open from 10am.

We have ordered enough vaccines for all of our eligible patients this year and appreciate the support of our patients in choosing to have your vaccines with us as this is the quickest way for your records to be updated and kept accurate.

Children’s flu vaccinations

This season, all children of school age will be vaccinated by the school nurses and schools will send communication to parents about this closer to the time.

In Practice we are vaccinating only children aged 2 and 3 – although it is a little complicated, as the children must be aged 2 or 3 on the 31st August 2021 (so they may be 4 by the date of their appointment).

The vaccines for the 2–3-year old’s are also now in stock so if you haven’t been contacted yet and wish to book your child in then please call our Patient Care Advisors on the flu line after 10am.

Covid-19 Booster vaccinations

We have now received confirmation that the COVID-19 booster vaccinations are going ahead for priority groups 1-9 per the diagram below. This is those people aged 50+, residents and staff in care homes, health and social care workers and those clinically vulnerable. It is the same cohorts that are eligible for this year’s flu vaccination.

As before we need to work through the priority order starting with groups 1 & 2 and will work through the groups. We will contact you to invite you for your vaccination as soon as you become eligible. Please note there must be at least 6 months between your last COVID-19 vaccination and this 3^rd booster dose.  

We are advised that all patients will be receiving the Pfizer vaccination, regardless of the vaccination they had last time so there will be the requirement to wait on site for 15 minutes after you have been vaccinated.

All Covid-19 vaccination clinics will take place at the Riviera Centre in Torquay as before as this allows us to get though over 1,500 patients per day whilst social distancing. There is also lots of parking on site and adequate clinically trained staff to observe during the waiting period. We will be running clinics Monday to Friday 0830-1715 commencing Monday 27^th September. Please do not turn up without having a booked appointment as we will not be able to accept walk-ins during these clinics.

At risk 12-15 year olds

We are running a special session for clinically vulnerable 12-15 year olds on Tuesday 21^st September, 1600-1730 and those eligible will be contacted and offered an appointment.

Healthy 12-15 year olds

The programme to vaccinate the healthy 12–15 year olds will be a school-based programme, the same as flus for this cohort. We are unable to vaccinate this cohort at the Riviera Centre and any queries should be directed to the school immunisation team.