The Harrogate pharmacies at the forefront of the booster campaign

Besides the GP-run vaccination sites at Harrogate’s Great Yorkshire Showground and Ripon Races, nine local pharmacies are also at the forefront of the booster jab campaign.

Harrogate Pharmacy, at the back of Rawcliffe’s on East Parade, is amongst them. It has been offering vaccines since October and has so far delivered 4,000 doses at a rate of one every four minutes.

When the Stray Ferret visited to find out more about the operation, staff told us the past 18 months had been like no other but were adamant they wanted to do their bit to help.

They offer 300 to 450 vaccines per week, which are all administered by one vaccinator.

The pharmacy is now booked up until Christmas but about 10 people a day drop out so staff are happy to take calls inquiring whether there are spaces for walk-ins.

Shaun Davis, superintendent pharmacist, said more pharmacies should provide jabs to meet the government’s goal of offering all over 18s a booster by the end of the month. he said:

“They need to allow more sites to open a centre more easily — why can’t pharmacies who have offered a flu jab for years not offer covid jabs without all the unnecessary red tape? if it was to be made easier it could be a very simple walk-in service in any pharmacy.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement on Sunday night did not give vaccine sites much time to prepare for the sudden increase in capacity required.

“They can’t announce something yesterday saying you need it to happen today with no infrastructure in place to manage that.

“That kind of knee-jerk response to things is not very considered to me. It’s only around 40% of the population that have had their booster and if you want to get it to a stage of having a real impact on this variant they have to come up with a strategy to do this.”

Harrogate Pharmacy has been open throughout the pandemic. Staff have helped patients when GP surgeries and hospitals have been overwhelmed, as well as giving vaccines.

Charlotte Turnbull, supervisor, said:

“It’s been a lot of pressure. We took a lot of the brunt when a lot of doctors or hospitals were overwhelmed and because we are delivery-only a lot of people moved to us because we can drop it at their doorstep and walk away rather than them having to walk to a busy pharmacy.

“There needs to be more capacity and people on board, if they want all adults booked before new year.”

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Other pharmacies in the Harrogate district offering vaccinations:

Appointments are available on the NHS app for Thursday December 16 and Friday December 17 8am-6pm, Saturday December 18 8am-3pm, December 20 to 23 8am-8pm, December 28 to 30 8am-8pm and December 31 8am-3pm.

*Some of these dates have been extended today so new appointments are now online to book.

Appointments are available on the NHS app for Saturday December 18 9am-12pm and 1pm-4pm, Tuesday December 21st 8am-1pm and Thursday December 30 9am-12pm and 1pm-4pm.

Appointments are available on the NHS app for Monday to Thursday 9.30am to 5.45pm

Appointments are available on the NHS app Monday to Sunday 9am-1pm, 2pm-4pm and 5pm-6.30pm

Currently full until New Year

No information available at the time

No information available at the time

Waiting on vaccine supply, keep an eye on our covid coverage for more information.

Waiting for official approval then clinic appointments will be made available online. Keep an eye on our covid coverage for more information.

 

Compulsory covid vaccines make recruitment harder, say district care homes

Some Harrogate district care homes have said making covid vaccines compulsory for care home staff will make recruiting new staff even harder.

Recruitment in the care sector is “at crisis point” and some of those working in the field say the government’s decision, that comes into play today, has put care home staff in an unfair position.

Klara Spatenkova, home manager at the Manor House in Knaresborough, said out of 65 members of staff she’d lost four because of the new rule:

“At first, I felt like a lot of it didn’t make sense. We all have to be vaccinated yet all the visitors don’t. Just because of their personal views people are leaving jobs they have worked in for years.

“Out of 65 staff, four, is nowhere near as bad as other homes. We will always do our best to take care of our residents and give them the best care. That hasn’t changed it’s just been hard, it has definitely impacted recruitment too.”

The director of a home care group covering the Harrogate district said although the ruling doesn’t affect his staff yet he agrees recruitment will get harder.

Matthew Nutting works for Radfield Home Care and said:

“We are expecting the rule to affect domestic care staff by the new year. The recruitment challenge we face now is the worst I’ve seen in 15 years.

I think the new ruling is more destructive than covid itself because it reduces our pool of potential employees even further. It’s already reduced because of Brexit, covid but this will make it much worse.

“We need a dedicated action plan from the government to help.”

“Unfair” to only affect care home staff

But other homes said the impact has been minimal. Tracey Holroyd, chair of care home group Warmest Welcome which operates eight homes including the Crest in Harrogate and Westfield House in Killinghall, has only lost two staff members:

“I think a lot of it is down to geographical areas, we haven’t faired too badly but I know others have lost more staff. I don’t think it has had a huge impact on recruitment for us it’s just a bit unfair its not the same across the health service.”

Health Secretary, Sajod Javid, has confirmed this week that covid vaccines will become compulsory for all NHS workers. He said it is likely to be enforced by April.

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Barchester runs Thistle Hill and Boroughbridge Manor care homes. A statement from the group said the new ruling won’t impact these homes as those who refused the vaccine left months ago:

“Months ago we took the decision that staff working in a Barchester care home must be vaccinated. As a result we are well-prepared ahead of the deadline and we have seen strong uptake and positive engagement with the covid-19 vaccination.

The deadline tomorrow will not impact our homes locally as any employees that refused the vaccine left months ago and no one has been hired without being vaccinated or medically exempt.”