Staffordshire tops national performance table for Covid vaccinations
Nearly half a million have now had their first dose.
The number of Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent residents receiving the Covid-19 vaccine is set to pass 500,000 this week.
The area has topped a national “league table” for vaccine administration, health bosses told a Staffordshire County Council meeting.
Marcus Warnes, Accountable Officer for Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent CCGs (Clinical Commissioning Groups), described his experience of getting the vaccine on Friday at the County Showground as “incredibly slick” and said he received it the day after getting his letter.
Speaking before national issues with vaccine supplies were flagged on Wednesday evening, he told Tuesday's healthy Staffordshire select committee: “We are one of the best performing systems in the country. The HSJ (Health Service Journal) put us at the top of 42 STPS (Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships) and ICSs (Integrated Care Systems) nationally.
“We are doing incredibly well in terms of rolling out the vaccine. We have got the lowest stock levels of pretty much any system in the country – when we get it we jab people with it."
“We are blazing the trail on this. We are amongst the most efficient deliverers in the country. We are going at pace, we are jabbing people as quickly as we can get the vaccines through.
“What we’ve done literally is set up a medium-sized supermarket chain within a matter of four or five weeks to jab people. As of Monday 49 per cent of our eligible population had had at least one jab – that’s 39% of our total population, given that we’re only jabbing people over 18. "While we do have some issues around some of our BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) and harder to reach and more disadvantaged communities I think this is a real success."
“I am absolutely confident that we will deliver the April 15 deadline to do priority groups one to nine. We will probably do that by the end of March.
Dr Paddy Hannigan, clinical lead for the vaccination programme in Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent, said: “The programme is going well – In the league table of CCGs and STPs in the Health Service Journal last week Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent was the highest CCG in the country for over-65 uptake levels, which was good to see.
“As of Monday morning, the figures are that we have done 486,000 first doses and about 30,000 second doses. We hope to breach the 500,000 barrier probably tomorrow – there is a bit of lag with the figures.
“Last week we did 49,000 vaccinations across Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent; that rises this week to 79,000. There’s a significant step up in tempo of the programme from this week onwards.
“We’re now getting into a fairly significant degree of second dose vaccines, together with continued first doses. .”
Councillors heard that the percentage of Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent residents in the first four priority groups who had received the their first dose of the vaccination – which includes over 70s, health and care workers and clinically extremely vulnerable people – was “in the mid-90s”. The level was 90 per cent for 60-64-year-olds, 79 per cent for over 55s and 39 per cent for 50-55year olds.
Dr Hannigan said: “All those cohorts are being invited in at the moment.
“The largest cohort to date is cohort six, which is everyone between 16 and 65 with long term conditions, which is two to three times the size of any of the other cohorts. We’re currently at 71 per cent uptake in that cohort. It’s quite a grind, but the GP sites and local vaccination sites are working their way through that.”
There are also a number of schemes running to ensure “hard to reach” residents are offered the vaccination too, the meeting heard, and every care home in Staffordshire has now been visited. A programme for the homeless, which started last week, has enabled 65 people in Stoke on Trent to be vaccinated, with a further 250 due to be offered the jab in Staffordshire.
Committee member Councillor Bernard Peters, who represents East Staffordshire’s Horninglow and Stretton division, praised the work of imams at Burton’s mosques as part of the vaccine rollout.
Fellow committee member Councillor Ann Edgeller told health bosses: “Thank you for all the good work you are doing – the feedback we get from people is fantastic.
“Knowing what’s happening in other countries regarding the Astra Zeneca vaccine, have we had any people in this country refusing to take it because of what’s happening?”
Dr Hannigan responded: ”Broadly speaking, no. It’s very hard to find people who are refusing the vaccine. We can fill all our capacity.
“Our initial refusal rate quoted back from sites who were phoning patients was one or two per cent, so I think absolute refusal is quite small. I think hesitancy is perhaps an issue – there’s a group of people who sit on the fence and are persuadable. We just have to identify what their individual issues and arguments are – and you need to take it down to a more localised or even personal message to that patient.”
