COVID VACCINATION INVITATIONS
There has been a lot of confusion about letters and text messages inviting people for their Covid vaccination, so we would like to clarify things for people.
There are two completely separate systems running for Covid vaccinations….
- There are the government run mass vaccination centres, which are Nationwide. The closest mass vaccination centres are in Malvern, Birmingham, and Bristol.
- Then there are the smaller local, GP led, vaccination services. For Tewkesbury this is run from The Devereux Centre. This service is run and staffed by people working for the Tewkesbury GP practices and local volunteers.
The Government have just started sending out letters for the larger mass vaccination sites to invite patients under 60 to have their vaccination now. This is being done to allow the local surgeries to concentrate on patients over 60 and those with underlying health conditions (the surgery are inviting these patients by text or phone call).
If you receive a letter from the Government inviting you to book at one of the mass vaccination site please DO NOT call the surgery asking if you can book locally instead. This is causing a huge amount of phone calls to the surgery and we DO NOT have provision to accommodate you at this stage. You can either book at one of the larger mass vaccination sites now, as your letter states, or WAIT until you receive a text message to say your age bracket is being called at the surgery.
(Please note the current wait time for patients aged 55-59 to be called up at the surgery is approximately 2 weeks, for those patients under 55 it will be longer).
IMPORTANT: If you choose to go to one of the larger mass vaccination sites for your first jab, you will also have to do so for your second jab.
Please stay safe and follow government guidelines.