COVID19 Vaccinations

Spring 2024 Covid-19 Vaccines
If you are immunosuppressed, +75, or an older adults care home resident, you may have received a letter from your GP inviting you to have your latest Covid-19 vaccine. If you haven’t done so already, please book in for this. Having the vaccine reduces your risk of becoming unwell with Covid-19. Vaccines for spring start on 22 April 2024.
For more information on how to book at your nearest location, scan the QR code or search NHS Covid Vaccine.

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Covid-19 Vaccine Booster Doses

ARCH (Alfreton, Ripley, Crich, & Heanor) Primary Care Network have started Phase 3 of the Covid-19 immunisation programme. Individuals become eligible for a booster dose once 3 months have passed since their second dose was given. Our Local Vaccination Service has given more than 65000 doses of a Covid-19 vaccine so far, and we are pleased to be able to offer some booster doses from our site at Church Farm in Ripley. PLEASE AWAIT YOUR INVITATION to book an appointment rather than call any of our practices directly. Booster doses will also be accessible for eligible people via the National Booking System by calling 119.

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Oxford – Astra Zeneca Covid-19 vaccine

Click here to download these AstraZeneca FAQs

FAQs – related to incidence of PE/DVT (blood clots)

Why is it in the news?
There have been a small number of cases of DVT/PE – blood clots in legs or lungs in patients who have had the Oxford AZ vaccine. It is important to remember that nearly 20 million doses of Oxford AZ vaccine have been safely given all over the world.

Should you be getting the vaccine if you are booked to get your Oxford AZ jab?
YES. Everyone who is offered a covid vaccine should take the vaccine as planned.

Should I insist on getting Pfizer vaccine instead?
NO. We have no control over the supply chain and insisting on Pfizer is likely to delay your vaccination putting you and your loved ones at much higher risk of Covid and it’s complications. (2)

Should I avoid vaccination altogether due to risk of blood clots?
NO. You should get your Covid vaccine when offered. Getting Coronavirus infection itself increases your risk of getting DVT or PE (blood clots). Studies have shown that up to 20-30% (or more when admitted to ICU) of critically ill Covid patients develop DVT or PE. (1)

Facts about blood clots DVT/PE

1 per 1000 in any adult population can have DVT or PE in any given year (9, 10)
• Between 2 – 12 per 1000 women on HRT (Hormone replacement therapy) or Oral contraceptive pills (OCPs) can develop DVT or PE. (6, 7, 8)
• 1 in 3 patients admitted to hospitals for any operations are at risk of developing a DVT or PE (blood clots) without preventive treatment. (4, 5)
• 15 out of 100 people with a diagnosis of cancer can develop DVT or PE (3)
• patients who are pregnant, obese, with history of long immobilisation and many other conditions are at substantially increased risk of developing DVT or PE (blood clots).
• DVT or PE is a serious and relatively common blood clot condition which can develop entirely unrelated to Covid vaccination. You should immediately seek medical advice from your GP or 111 or nearest AE if you are worried that you may have DVT or PE. You can get further information about DVT or PE from www.nhs.uk (13, 14).

Overwhelming numbers of experienced doctors, research scientists, WHO (World Health Organization), MHRA UK (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency), EMA (European Medicines Agency) have all advised that the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine is safe to use in all groups of patients. (11, 12)

There is extremely good evidence that the Oxford AZ vaccine reduces the risk of catching Covid infection, minimises the risk of hospitalisation with Covid illness while also reducing the risk of spreading Covid infection to other people.

Hence it is important to have your Covid vaccines when you are sent an invitation to book your appointment. It is safe and extremely important that you have either the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine or the Pfizer vaccine when offered.

https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m2058
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7940863/
3. https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancer-in-general/treatment/cancer-and-the-risk-of-blood-clots
4. https://www.chelwest.nhs.uk/your-visit/patient-leaflets/support-services/are-you-at-risk-of-blood-clots
5. https://thrombosisuk.org/thrombosis-statistics.php
6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6714678/
7. https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/news/behind-the-headlines/hrt-and-blood-clot-risk
8. https://www.bmj.com/content/364/bmj.k4810
9. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S003719630700025X?via%3Dihub
10. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2020806/#:~:text=Venous%20thrombosis%2C%20comprising%20deep%20vein,PE%20with%20or%20without%20DVT.
11. https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-how-common-have-blood-clots-been-after-the-astrazeneca-jab-and-should-we-be-worried-12246472
12. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55302595
13. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/deep-vein-thrombosis-dvt/
14. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pulmonary-embolism/

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Your Covid-19 vaccination is very important.

You may be worried about information shared in the media over recent days about the AstraZeneca vaccine so please read the following statement from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA):

“We are closely reviewing reports but the evidence available does not suggest the vaccine is the cause.

“Blood clots can occur naturally and are not uncommon. More than 11 million doses of the COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca have now been administered across the UK, and the number of blood clots reported after having the vaccine is not greater than the number that would have occurred naturally in the vaccinated population.

“We are working closely with international counterparts in understanding the global safety experience of COVID-19 vaccines and on the rapid sharing of safety data and reports. People should still go and get their COVID-19 vaccine when asked to do”

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The priority groups have been identified based on the risk of people getting coronavirus and experiencing serious symptoms.

You can book your appointment now using the National Booking System or by calling 119 if:

National booking system

Call 119 or click on this link https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/book-coronavirus-vaccination/

Who can use this service

You can only use this service if any of the following apply:

you are aged 55 or over
you are at high risk from coronavirus (clinically extremely vulnerable)
you are an eligible frontline health or social care worker
you have a condition that puts you at higher risk (clinically vulnerable)
you have a learning disability
you are a main carer for someone at high risk from coronavirus

If you are not in one of these groups, please wait to be contacted by the National Booking System or your GP practice.

Vaccine supply

Vaccine supply fluctuations sometimes limit the number of appointments available at different vaccination venues. This can be frustrating, but is beyond the control of GP staff or the vaccination teams, who do their best to ensure this does not affect patients’ booked appointments. Please be patient and, if you have an appointment, attend it unless you are contacted directly.

Clinical vulnerability

The Government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has set out guidance on which groups should be offered vaccinations as a priority based on their clinical vulnerability. The main groups are:

People who are “extremely clinically vulnerable”
- You can read the Government definition of this here.
- People in this group can book an appointment using the National Booking System.
People who are “at risk” of becoming seriously ill from Covid-19.
- You can read the official list of “at risk” conditions here.
- This includes unpaid carers.
- GP practices are approaching “at risk” people and offering appointments, so please be patient if you haven’t been contacted yet.

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Covid-19 Vaccination Programme Update – 03/03/2021

Dear Jessop MP Patients,

We would like to provide you with an update on where we are up to with the COVID Vaccination Program and hopefully answer some of the questions you may have. We were part of the first Primary Care Networks (PCN) in Derbyshire to go live with the COVID Vaccine before Christmas. Since then we have moved our way through cohorts 1-5 with 95% of our patients within those groups now receiving a 1st dose. We are currently working our way through cohort 6, the largest of all the eligibility groups. As cohort 6 is much larger and more complex, we are following national guidance to focus on this group, while the national system continues to work down the age cohorts. As cohort 6 patients are at higher risk we can identify them more easily in practice.

We are proud to have been able to provide a local vaccination HUB from our rooms at Church Farm for both our patients and as part of ARCH (Alfreton Ripley Crich & Heanor) Primary Care Network – as well as running our own clinics from Leabrooks. We thank all the practice staff that have contributed their own time during their days off and weekends to keep the vaccination effort going and also the numerous volunteers who have given up their own time to help out. We must also say a huge thank you to the patients who have been understanding of the regulations and expressing their gratitude.

As you can appreciate, the pace at which we vaccinate is determined by the supply we receive and this information is provided to us on a week-by-week basis. We realise that patients who receive letters from the national system inviting them to go for their vaccine at other sites may prefer to come to the surgery or patients who received their 1st vaccine elsewhere would like their 2nd with us. The guidance is that patients should attend the designated or same vaccination site, this is to ensure that the correct vaccines and supply are available.

As well as keeping a continuing flow of 1st doses, we are the first site in Derbyshire to start doing 2nd doses for our over 80s this week. You may have even caught our very own Dr Mott on the BBC news this week.

As the campaign continues to ramp up in the coming weeks and months we encourage our patients to wait to be contacted either by us or the national system to get booked in for their vaccine. Eligibility for each cohort is tightly defined, but we will be in touch with people as soon as vaccine supply allows for their relevant cohort. We all want to achieve the same thing and get everyone vaccinated, so please be patient.

Many thanks for your on going support.

Jessop MP

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Covid-19 Vaccinations Update – 7^th January 2021

Our practice, working with colleagues in other local practices as part of ARCH Primary Care Network, continues to provide covid-19 vaccinations. In the past couple of weeks the majority of our elderly care home residents and care home staff have been vaccinated.

This Weekend (9^th/10^th January)

The plans for this weekend have changed.

You may have heard widely in the media that appointments for those due their second Covid jab would be cancelled and the slots rebooked with new patients for their first Covid jab.

Technically, though the appointments are being cancelled, those due their second jab will still get it, but at a later date, up to 12 weeks from the first jab.

This is a result of a direct request from the four Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) for the United Kingdom based on new evidence from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The evidence suggests that the first dose of Covid vaccine provides protection for most people up to 3 months.

This significant change might be a little confusing and perhaps frustrating for some, however the aim of it is to jab more people in the priority groups with one jab and provide them all with some protective immunity, rather than have fewer people with two jabs ending up with only slightly more immunity. From a public health perspective, this should prevent more infections and consequently save more lives, during a difficult time when coronavirus is spreading rapidly in the community and vaccine availability is not optimal.

All patients who had their first vaccine on the 19^th or 20^th December will be contacted from a national centre to confirm that their second vaccine that was planned for this weekend is BEING POSTPONED. You will still get your second dose in a few weeks, and we will be in touch to arrange that in due course. PLEASE DO NOT ATTEND FOR A SECOND DOSE THIS WEEKEND as you will be turned away.

We have been able to rebook all of these appointments for another 1000+ patients to have their FIRST vaccination this weekend instead.

Looking Ahead

We are still working through the over 80’s age group, and when all of this group have had the opportunity to have a vaccination we will then move onto the next group (over 75s). PLEASE WAIT TO BE CONTACTED as we have all your details and will be in touch when you become eligible. We must follow the national programme and cannot change it locally.

At present the vaccines cannot be transported to individual practices so the programme continues to be based from Church Farm in Ripley. As and when the guidelines change we will adjust accordingly, but there is no indication when this might be. Please do attend Ripley when invited for a vaccination if you possibly can.

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First Phase of Vaccination Programme commences

The first phase of the NHS Covid-19 vaccination programme has started nationally.

We will begin vaccinating the first phase of priority patients against COVID-19 from 19^th December 2020. We are contacting eligible patients directly to invite them for their vaccinations.

Priority patients are based on the Government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) who identify patients based on the prevention of serious illness from COVID-19. Prioritisation is primarily based on age, as the risk of serious illness and death from COVID-19 increases with age.

This priority list is as follows:

residents in a care home for older adults, and their carers
all those 80 years of age and over, and frontline health and social care workers
all those 75 years of age and over
all those 70 years of age and over, and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals
all those 65 years of age and over
all individuals aged 16 years to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious illness and death
all those 60 years of age and over
all those 55 years of age and over
all those 50 years of age and over

Please wait to be contacted

We are receiving lots of queries from patients about the vaccine. Please wait to be contacted. When you become eligible and we have vaccine available you will receive an invitation to book an appointment either from: