Coronavirus Information

COVID-19 Vaccination Programme

Our practice is currently supporting the delivery of the COVID-19 vaccination programme. This means that at certain times some of our team will be involved in running vaccine clinics.

The NHS is vaccinating those people who experts have agreed will benefit from it the most. A vaccination programme of this size and scale will take some time to roll out in full. Please be assured that everyone who needs the vaccine will be offered it. The NHS will be in touch with you when it is your turn to be vaccinated. Please don't call us before you are invited.

In the meantime, you can get information about the COVID-19 Vaccination online at www.nhs.uk/covidvaccination

Our staff are working extremely hard to provide services and care and we would like to thank our patients for your continued support.

If you have received a letter from the national booking system about a vaccination appointment and have any questions about this, please contact them on the number given. The practice does not have any information on the centres and is not able to book appointments for patients at these venues.

If you would prefer to have your appointment at our local service, you do not need to do anything – we will contact you as soon as an appointment is available.

For further information on the national booking system appointment process and the options available to you, please click here/see below

Vaccination Invitation Letters from the National Booking System

These are being sent to people who live within 45 minutes of one of the centres that has been opened, which might be in a different area to where you would normally receive your healthcare.

Please note that you do not have to book an appointment at one of these centres if it is not convenient for you to get there. You can:

choose to wait for an invitation from your GP practice OR

choose to wait until one of the West Yorkshire centres open and are added to the national booking system, which will happen over the next few weeks.Please do not contact your local practice about an appointment until you receive an invitation from them. They will not be able to advise you on when you will get an appointment or which centres are available. All this information is available on the national booking system website.The centres in West Yorkshire that are currently on the national booking system are:
Boots pharmacy in Halifax
Superdrug in the Merrion Centre, Leeds
Pharmacy2U at the Village Hotel, Leeds
Pharmacy2U at Morrisons, Dewsbury Road, Wakefield

Four large scale vaccination centres will be opening in West Yorkshire between now and mid- February. This will be at:

Navigation Walk, Wakefield
The John Smith’s Stadium, Huddersfield
Jacob’s Well, Bradford
Elland Road Football Stadium, Leeds

The Practice remains open throughout lockdown #2. Requests for appointments will still be triaged by phone but face to face appointments will be available where needed.

We also request that patients do NOT panic order prescriptions.

E-consults remain an effective way of contacting us but patients need to remember to include sufficient detail.

Government advice is that those who previously shielded do not need to do so again but they should take extra precautions to remain safe.

if you live alone and you have symptoms of coronavirus illness (COVID-19), however mild, stay at home for 7 days from when your symptoms started. (See ending isolation section below for more information)
if you live with others and you or one of them have symptoms of coronavirus, then all household members must stay at home and not leave the house for 14 days. The 14-day period starts from the day when the first person in the house became ill
it is likely that people living within a household will infect each other or be infected already. Staying at home for 14 days will greatly reduce the overall amount of infection the household could pass on to others in the community
for anyone in the household who starts displaying symptoms, they need to stay at home for 7 days from when the symptoms appeared, regardless of what day they are on in the original 14 day isolation period. (See ending isolation section below for more information
if you can, move any vulnerable individuals (such as the elderly and those with underlying health conditions) out of your home, to stay with friends or family for the duration of the home isolation period
if you cannot move vulnerable people out of your home, stay away from them as much as possible
if you have coronavirus symptoms:
do not go to a GP surgery, pharmacy or hospital
you do not need to contact 111 to tell them you’re staying at home
testing for coronavirus is not needed if you’re staying at home
plan ahead and ask others for help to ensure that you can successfully stay at home and consider what can be done for vulnerable people in the household
ask your employer, friends and family to help you to get the things you need to stay at home
wash your hands regularly for 20 seconds, each time using soap and water, or use hand sanitiser
if you feel you cannot cope with your symptoms at home, or your condition gets worse, or your symptoms do not get better after 7 days, then use the NHS 111 onlinecoronavirus service. If you do not have internet access, call NHS 111. For a medical emergency dial 999

Covid-19 Vaccination of 16-17-year olds – NHS find a walk-in vaccination site online portal All 16 and 17 year olds are now eligible to receive their Covid-19 Vaccination. 16/17 year olds, who do not fit into a previous cohort (one to nine), will be unable to book an appointment via The National Booking System, as the current JCVI guidance is for this cohort to only receive one dose. Therefore, the NHS has launched an online portal, which this cohort can use to effectively find a vaccination site, to receive their vaccine, via a walk in appointment. The link to this portal is - https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-walk-in-coronavirus-covid-19- vaccination-site

Vaccine Information

I am worried that the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine isn’t safe as I’ve heard some countries are stopping using it – should I still have it?

Some European countries have temporarily paused the use of the vaccine as a precautionary measure, following reports of blood clots in a small number of people who had recently had the vaccine.
However, there is no evidence that the blood clots have been caused by the vaccine and the UK regulator, the Medicines Health Regulatory Authority, has said that they are confident the vaccine is safe. This is supported by both the European Medicines Agency (the European regulator for medicines and vaccines) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), who have said the vaccine should is safe and should continue be given.
There were 30 reports of clots among almost five million people given the vaccine across Europe but this is actually less than the number that would be expected to happen naturally. Following the concerns regarding blood clots, AstraZeneca has conducted a review of all safety data, which has shown no evidence of an increased risk of blood clots. This covered more than 17 million people vaccinated in the UK and European Union.
The UK is further ahead its vaccination programme than most other countries and so far over 20 million people in England have been vaccinated. It is very important that people still have their COVID-19 vaccine when asked to do so. This is the only protection available against the serious illness caused by Covid-19, which has sadly led to the death of millions of people around the world, and people will continue to be at risk from the disease if they do not take up the offer of a vaccine.

Stay safe and ensure you have your COVID vaccination