Letter to local residents from Sally-Ann on the local vaccine rollout:
Dear Resident,
Thank you for contacting me about the Covid19 vaccine rollout in our area.
I understand the urgency and frustration at which local residents are wanting to receive one of the two Covid19 vaccines now available.
Adam Doyle, the Chief Executive of the Sussex Care Commissioning Group (responsible for the vaccine rollout in Sussex), has this morning confirmed that vaccines have been delivered across East Sussex since 8th December to the most vulnerable people and to front line NHS and care sector staff.
At present vaccinations are taking place in hospital hubs; GP led vaccination services; roving services to care homes and the housebound; and planning is going into mass vaccination sites across the county.
Hospital hub vaccination services in Sussex were launched at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton on 8th December 2020. Teams at the hospital have been vaccinating those over the age of 80 who were attending the hospital and health and care staff.
More local to us, the Conquest Hospital in Hastings went live as a hospital hub last week, and Eastbourne Hospital is due to go live this week.
GP-led vaccination services are where the majority of the current population are being offered their vaccinations. In total in Sussex there are 15 sites which have gone live to date. In the majority, each service is supported by a number of GP practices (within their Primary Care Network footprint) working together to vaccinate their collective population. Currently in East Sussex, six GP-led vaccination services have gone live and have all started to vaccinate patients over the age of 80.
The nearest site for residents in Hastings and Rye is at Sidley Medical Practice in Bexhill with other sites in Eastbourne and Lewes. However, later this week, a GP-led vaccination service goes live at The Hastings Centre in Hastings, on The Ridge.
The CCG is working to vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible, but deploying a vaccine at this scale is unprecedented. Timing will be dependent to a large extent on manufacturing timescales and supply.
We have to be realistic that this unprecedented logistical task is going to take some time to get up and running, but progress is already being made and the new vaccination site at the Hastings Centre in Hastings will be a game changer for us locally. The Government has set a target of vaccinating the four top priority groups (over 13 million people) by the middle of February, and I will continue to do all I can as the local MP to support the efforts of the CCG in ensuring we meet this target.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me on this important issue.
Kind regards,
Sally-Ann Hart MP
Member of Parliament
Hastings and Rye