Update 19th March 2022

• We have continued to work with three other surgeries (The Strand, Worthing Medical Group and Seldon Medical Center) to deliver Covid-19 vaccinations at The Strand Site in Worthing. This is close to Cornerways and now well-established in the delivery of Covid-19 vaccines.
• We are about to invite healthy 5-11 year olds for 1st vaccination. The clinical commissioning group initially advised these would be mainly in schools but now envisages GPs being the main providers of these vaccinations. We endeavour to make this is comfortable and convenient as possible.
• Please note that we have asked the administration team of “Innovations in Primary Care” to contact people on our behalf to invite for vaccination. This is a federation of local GP surgeries and their team have been invaluable in the response to COVID-19 locally.
• Our patients who are immunosuppressed have had or will have contact with the above team to organise their COVID-19 booster. Note in this group of patients, three doses are required for a normal vaccination course, followed by a booster (instead of the usual two followed by a booster).
• We do not know the plan for COVID-19 boosters for the general public come Autumn/Winter 2022 but hope to be able to deliver COVID-19 boosters alongside our flu jab clinics, which are usually run on Tuesday afternoons in September or October.

Update 21st March 2021

• Our local vaccination service will continue to vaccinate over the coming weeks.

• All booked appointments at any vaccination service or centre will continue to take place unless you hear directly from the service team to rearrange. Please make sure you attend your appointment.

• If you are in one of the priority groups (50 and over, clinically extremely vulnerable, those with underlying health conditions, and unpaid carers) and you have not received your vaccination, please book today.

• You can arrange your appointment by:

• Contacting the surgery (we book local appointments at The Strand Site, which is a service run by four local surgeries including us).

• Using the national booking service and booking an appointment at one of the vaccination services or pharmacy led services. You can do this by visiting the national website or by calling 119.

• We can assure you that there are appointments available before 29 March.
  • All booked appointments will honoured.

• We are working with our GP practice partners in the area to make sure we have vaccinated as many of those in the priority groups as possible.

• We are also working to start arranging second dose appointments. The vaccine supply for these appointments is not affected and these appointments will continue to be arranged and take place for our patients.

• It is really important that as many of our patients who are eligible receive their vaccination – the benefits of the vaccine in preventing COVID-19, with its associated risk of hospitalisation and death, are clear and we want as many of our patients protected as possible.

For more FAQs relating to the vaccination programme: https://www.sussexhealthandcare.uk/keepsussexsafe/sussex-covid-19-vaccination-programme/faqs-about-the-covid-19-vaccine/

Covid-19 vaccination programme – position statement (Worthing) as at Monday, 1^st February

We are currently vaccinating the cohort of patients who are aged 75 and over plus any Health & Social Care workers who have not yet been vaccinated.

So far we have vaccinated approximately 15,000 people across Worthing with their first dose.

The following vaccinations sites are either vaccinating or expecting a delivery in the next 7 days

• Durrington Health Centre – 1400 doses to be given
• Strand Medical – 1300 doses to be given this week
• St Lawrence Surgery – 1300 doses to be given

Please note that you may receive a letter inviting you to the Mass Vaccination site at the Brighton Centre.  These letters are being sent from another part of the NHS system and so you may receive on even if you already have an appointment at one of the local GP sites.  If this is the case, please make sure you keep your appointment with us.  Every missed appointment is potentially a wasted vaccine.

If you receive a letter but have not yet got an appointment locally, you can choose to wait for us to call you or attend as per the letter.

Patients in Care Homes

All patients in Care Homes have been offered the vaccine.  Aside from homes where there have been active covid cases, all patients in care homes who wanted the vaccine have had their first dose

Housebound patients

We started vaccinating patients who are housebound on 29^th January and will continue to vaccinate these patients until everyone has had their first dose.  We are working with Sussex Community Foundation Trust to get our housebound patients vaccinated as well as some of our own practice staff visiting to vaccinate some patients.

Frequently asked questions

All of the Practices in Worthing are working together to vaccinate their patients.  We aim to provide a position statement as often as we can so that patients can be reassured that we are progressing and that everyone will be vaccinated according to Government guidance.

There are some factors that are outside of our control which may make it appear that we aren’t vaccinating as quickly as you might think.

• Currently, vaccines can only be given at a designated site which has been through an approval process and practices are being asked to work together – there are three vaccine sites in Worthing.
• For certain types of vaccine, practices that are not a designated site are not permitted to vaccinate at their own premises.  However, their teams are working at vaccine sites.
• Practices do not currently have any control over when they get vaccine, what type of vaccine is delivered or how many doses – this is controlled nationally.
• We don’t get much notice of delivery dates/quantities – sometimes less than a week – this might mean you are called at short notice.  This is also why we might be calling you in at weekends.
• We are contractually and legally required only to give vaccines to the groups of people who have been approved by the government led Joint Committee on Vaccinations & Immuinsations.  We are not permitted to start vaccinating other groups until we are given authorisation to do so and until we have finished vaccinating the previous cohort.
• Getting this vaccine out is not done in the same way that we are able to run our flu clinics every year.  The vaccine is not in a pre-filled syringe and has to be drawn up.  The Pfizer vaccine is very sensitive and has to be handled according to strict guidance.  This is why we do not have such a large volume of patients coming through the vaccine site as we may have during a flu clinic

Please be assured that the practices and our teams are working extremely hard to get you vaccinated as soon as we can.  Many of our staff are working long hours.  We won’t leave anyone behind and we are committed to giving the vaccine to everyone that wants it. 

If you have previously been called about making an appointment and did not do so at the time, we will call you again unless you expressly told us you do not want the vaccine.

It is worth noting that what you see in the national media represents a national position and that there are local variances.  Checking your practice’s website regularly will give you the most up to date information for this area.

We have given this message out before but please avoid calling your practice to ask about vaccines.  We will do our best to show on this update which cohort we are on, if you are in a later cohort, we will be in touch when we are authorised to vaccinate you.

Working together

Central Worthing Primary Care Network	Cissbury Integrated Care Primary Care Network	Coastal & South Downs Primary Care Network
Broadwater Medical Centre	Cornerways Surgery	Lime Tree Surgery
St Lawrence Surgery	Selden Road Surgery	The Barn Surgery
Victoria Road Surgery	Strand Medical
	Worthing Medical Group