Barnsley is one of the hundreds of local vaccination services run by family doctors and their teams which will open across England this week, as the roll out of the biggest vaccination programme in NHS history gains further momentum.

Practices in more than 100 parts of the country are taking delivery of the vaccine today, with local clinics starting on Tuesday.

Nurses and healthcare assistants and other NHS staff will work alongside GPs to vaccinate those aged 80 and over from right across the borough as one of those groups identified as a priority for the life-saving vaccine.

Like hospital staff in Sheffield, who launched the world-leading campaign last week, GP practice teams have worked rapidly to redesign a site in Barnsley which can put in place safe processes to meet the tough logistical challenges of offering the vaccination.

Over the coming weeks and months the NHS will contact people in the priority groups when it is their turn to receive the vaccine.

Dr Mehrban Ghani, Barnsley Healthcare Federation said: “GPs, nurses, healthcare assistants, pharmacists and other primary care staff are eager to play their part in protecting people against coronavirus.

“This is the greatest vaccination programme ever undertaken by the NHS and, to help vaccinate people safely we will be working with local communities to deliver it in convenient and familiar settings and this week is just the start of that.

“As a GP I am proud to be part of this huge national effort to protect our patients across the borough against the virus.”

The latest phase of the vaccine roll-out is being co-ordinated by GP-led primary care networks with more practices and community pharmacies in other parts of England joining on a phased basis during December and in the coming months. 

Dr Ghani said: “GPs and our teams are about to embark on an enormous challenge, delivering the Covid-19 vaccination programme in the community whilst also delivering the expanded flu vaccine programme and the usual care and services our patients rely on us for.

“There are also logistical challenges but general practice has an excellent track record of delivering mass vaccination programmes, and we want to use this experience to help protect people from Covid-19 and start getting life back to normal again. We won’t be vaccinating everyone all at once - it will be a relatively small number at first - but as long as there is supply, GPs and our teams at a selected site will start vaccinating people this week, starting with our most vulnerable patients.

“Patients will be contacted and invited for vaccination - we would urge them not to contact their practice enquiring about vaccination, we will contact them."

For more information on the vaccine visit nhs.uk/covidvaccine.