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Supporting your community to get the Covid-19 vaccine

The Screening and Immunisation Team in Public Health Scotland have provided an update about the process of getting the Covid-19 vaccine (8 February 2021):

‘We would like to update you about COVID-19 vaccination invitation process, so that you are well informed to support your community over the coming weeks and months. People are now being invited for their COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) priority list.

Who is invited?

NHS Scotland will follow the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advice and vaccinate those most at risk first, and those who work closest with them.

At present, NHS Health Boards are working towards inviting the following groups for vaccination:

  1. all residents in a care home for older adults and their carers
  2. all those 80 years of age and over and frontline health and social care workers
  3. all those 75 years of age and over
  4. all those 70 years of age and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals
  5. all those 65 years of age and over

The remaining JCVI groups will be called in due course and we will provide a further update around this.

From the 1 February, people aged 70 and over and the clinically extremely vulnerable – including over-16s on the shielding list –  began receiving COVID-19 vaccines in a range of settings, including GP surgeries, community centres and mass vaccination centres (e.g. the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC), Aberdeen’s P&J LIVE at TECA and the Louisa Jordan in Glasgow). There are around 1100 vaccination sites now being used across Scotland.

How people are invited

There are different approaches in use – some people will be invited by phone and others by letter:

  • If people are invited by phone, appointment date, time and location will be discussed and agreed over the phone.
  • If people receive a letter, it will contain the date, time and location of the appointment and a leaflet providing important information about the COVID-19 vaccine.  If the appointment time or venue is unsuitable, people can call the number on their letter to rearrange their appointment. In due course, invitations letters will also give details of how people can book or change their appointment online (web address, username and instructions to do this will be provided in the letter).
  • Letters have started going out in Lothian, Grampian and Greater Glasgow and Clyde to those aged between 65 and 69.

An SMS was sent out on the 4th of February to around 65,000 Clinically Extremely Vulnerable individuals (those shielding aged 16-65) from Scot.gov. It advised the group to contact the Covid-19 vaccination helpline (0800 030 8013) if they have been advised to shield and need transport support to attend their vaccination appointment. Helpline operators have been given details of each local authority transport arrangements and will transfer people to the National Assistance helpline who provide details of local transport e.g. local taxi.

Information about the COVID-19 vaccine

We are keen to ensure that everyone can access information about the COVID-19 vaccine, and would welcome your support with this.  You may wish to signpost your community to NHS Inform COVID-19 vaccine website, to find details relevant to their NHS Health Board.  This is also the place to go if individuals wish to rearrange an appointment or have lost their letter.  People can also call the COVID-19 vaccination helpline on 0800 030 8013 (available 8am to 8pm, 7 days per week).

The invitation letter will include an information leaflet (in English language). If someone in your community requires the leaflet in another language or format, these are also available to download from the NHS inform COVID-19 vaccine website (17 community languages including British Sign Language, as well as Audio, Easy Read and Large Print formats.  You can request hard copies of these leaflets from Public Health Scotland by emailing phs.covidpublications@phs.scot  If you’d like to request hard copies of an alternative format or language, please email phs.otherformats@phs.scot

We are keen to ensure that all eligible groups can access the material provided and would welcome your support with this.  We would appreciate if you could share this information with the groups that you work with via your appropriate channels.  We will continue to provide updates over the coming months.’

If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch by emailing phs.screeningandimmunisation@phs.scot.

 

 

 

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