COVID-19 vaccination information for care providers

COVID-19 vaccination programme

Following extensive trials, two safe and effective vaccines for COVID-19 are now available. There has been a strict approval process which means that all approved vaccines have met strict safety standards and are our best defence against the virus.

Getting vaccinated means protecting yourself from the virus so you can be there for your family, friends and residents. You cannot catch COVID-19 from the vaccine, and two doses will reduce your chance of becoming seriously ill.

It will take some time for your body to build up protection, so you will still need to follow the guidance in your workplace, and follow general advice at work, at home and when you are out and about.

It is hoped that eventually when enough people have been vaccinated this will change.

Vaccination locations

You will be informed as to where you are getting your vaccination. This may include:

Hospital hubs - NHS providers vaccinating onsite in Norfolk. These are NNUH (Norwich), JPUH (Gorleston) and QEUH (Kings Lynn)
Local vaccine services - Community/primary care led services which could include using primary care facilities, retail, community facilities, temporary structures or roving teams. Roving teams will be used to deliver the vaccine directly to residents and staff in care homes
Vaccination centres - Large sites, such as sports and conference venues set up for high volumes of people

A full list of vaccination sites can be found here.

Vaccination dates

Following new advice from the UK Chief Medical Officers, your second coronavirus vaccination appointment may be now scheduled up to 12 weeks after the first dose.

This is so the NHS can get the first dose of the vaccine to more people as soon as possible. Your second vaccination should take place at the same location as your first.

Rollout to Cohort 1 - Care Home Staff and Residents

Care home staff and residents are among the first to be offered vaccinations as part of the rollout to cohort 1. We know that some care home staff have already been vaccinated, at their care home, through attending one of the vaccination sites or by a visiting GP. We now need to make sure any remaining staff who have not had their first dose are contacted, and where you are not already aware that a GP will be giving the vaccination. You should have received an email from enews@norfolk.gov.uk which will ask you to complete a short web form with details of the number of eligible staff in your organisation for whom no arrangements to provide a first dose of vaccine have been made and of your preferred arrangements for the vaccination. This web form replaces all previous spreadsheets and we apologise for the inconvenience this may cause you. With this being a new vaccination programme, there have been a number of logistical issues in rolling the vaccine out. We thank you for your patience and support during these unprecedented times.

Further information about how care home managers can help prepare for the rollout of the vaccination programme, including the latest forms and process around consent and administering the vaccine in care settings, can be found on Knowledge Anglia - under the “Covid Vaccination” section.

Rollout to Cohort 2- Frontline Health and Social Care Workers

All frontline social care workers are now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccination. The NHS will be vaccinating frontline social care workers over the coming weeks. As part of our approach locally, we also aim to vaccinate frontline adult and children’s social care workers and other key family support practitioners directly working with vulnerable children and adults who need care and support, irrespective of where they work (for example in hospital, in people’s own homes, in day / family centres, or in supported living or residential care) or who they are employed by (for example local government, NHS, independent sector or third sector). The target is to vaccinate all eligible frontline health and care workers by 15 February.

We recently wrote to providers we believed were eligible with information on how they can support their staff to access the vaccine. If you have not yet received any correspondence from us and feel that you should be included as part of this cohort then please contact vaccineplanning@norfolk.gov.uk.

If you have any queries about the vaccination programme contact nwccg.covidvaccinationcell@nhs.net.

Finding nurses to support the vaccination programme

The NHS is interested in finding out how many registered nurses are willing to support the vaccination programme.

Care home nurses who are willing to vaccinate their residents and/or staff should contact Irene Karrouze, Care Provider Quality Improvement Nurse, NHS Norfolk and Waveney CCG at i.karrouze@nhs.net

To become competent in immunisation, nurses need to complete the following modules/courses on the e-Learning for Health (e-LfH) platform:

Immunisation (IMM)
Core Knowledge for COVID-19 Vaccinators
COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine BNT162b2
Anaphylaxis training (if you have not done ILS/BLS training that covered anaphylaxis training)

For an extra face to face one and a half day training, email norfolkwaveneytraininghub@nhs.net