Vaccine rollout for four local communities underway - with more to come

The Franklin Hall is one of 16 community hubs in the county offering Covid-19 vaccinations, in addition to hospitals in Lincoln, Louth and the Pilgrim at Boston.

SOLAS GP Primary Care Network – Stickney Old Leake, Alford and Spilsby Surgeries – started vaccinating our patients at the Franklin Hall last week..

The staff of Stickney Surgery, including practice manager Jason Longstaff and PCN Manager Andy Hill, have worked hard on the local plan and preparing the hub.

Spilsby Surgery has reassured patients they will be contacted when it is their turn to be vaccinated.

A statement explains: "The areas of the country receiving the vaccine were prioritised according to need.

"Individual patients will be contacted by telephone by a county call centre according to risk.

"Top of the list are the over 80s awaiting hospital treatment, care home residents and their staff.

"It will take some weeks to receive and administer the first dose of vaccine to all everybody, please be patient and don't contact the surgery."

The reassurance comes after concerns about 'fake news' on social media, claiming Spilsby Surgery patients were 'at the end of the queue' for vaccinations.

"We are saddened to see the disinformation currently being in recent days spread on local social media," said a statement.

"The lie that our patients were at the end of a queue for vaccinations causes anxiety to vulnerable individuals and is demoralizing to the staff who you expect to volunteer to go above and beyond for many months to come.

"Spilsby Surgery has made a New Year's Resolution to tackle fake news head-on in 2021. We would ask you all to think before you act and consider the effect your actions have on others.

"If you post or share untruths online that are harmful to other patients, members of the wider public or healthcare staff, please expect to be called out on our website and our other social media outlets."

Anxious members of the community have also been reassured five more vaccination sites will go live this week.

East Lindsey District Council leader Craig Leyland, said : “We are assured by the NHS that a further five vaccination sites will go live week commencing January 11 across Lincolnshire, including sites that will serve our coastal communities.”

The government has also said that hundreds of new sites will be coming next week as part of their plans to give 13 million of the UK’s most vulnerable the jab by mid-February, but hasn’t said where they will be.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he wanted every resident to have a vaccination hub within 10 miles by January 15.

Health bosses in Lincolnshire are pushing the “stay at home” message of the lockdown during the vaccine rollout, as Lincolnshire’s infection rates “hang in the balance”.

The rate has been consistently between 250-300 per 100,000 people over the past two weeks and bosses say it could go either way in the near future, depending how people behave.

Government bosses are telling public health officials that although the public is behaving better than the November lockdown, they’re not as well behaved as the March one.

“You’ve just got to look at other places how quickly London are parts of the South East accelerated,” said Lincolnshire County Council’s director for public health Derek Ward.

He added his voice to those calling for more information, which he hoped would start coming more regularly from Monday. NHS England has been asked for comment.