There will be an Autumn Campaign for the CV19 vaccination Program. It starts in September 2022 and is predicted to last until December 2022.
Most patients will have already had 2 doses and a booster (however some may have had up to 5 doses dependant on age/medical issues).
There are lots of ways of patients that are registered with one of the Lower Valley GP Surgeries getting their CV19 vaccination in Autumn 2022.
- Go online to https://digital.nhs.uk/services/vaccinations-national-booking-service. Book an appointment through the National Booking Service.
- Call 119 to access the National Booking Service by phone rather than on-line.
- Call your local pharmacy to see if they are giving the vaccinations.
- Via your GP Surgery.
Earlier in the Vaccination Program GP surgeries were the only place patients were able to get the vaccination. At the time GP surgeries were able to put a lot of resources into delivering the vaccinations as the government allowed GPs to focus on the vaccination program rather than other services that GP surgeries would normally offer.
This is no longer the case.
For this reason, the number of vaccinations that can be delivered by GP surgeries is significantly reduced. The NHS has put resources into other providers (e.g. Community pharmacies) giving the vaccinations in the Autumn. The amount of vaccine that GP surgeries have access to has also reduced due to the other providers also being able to give the vaccination.
GP surgeries have been asked to focus on patients that live in Care Homes, housebound patients, and immunosuppressed patients. Even then the number of vaccines able to be delivered by the GP surgeries is significantly lower than in 2021.
Current advice is not to contact GP surgeries to ask about the CV19 vaccination unless invited to do so by the GP surgery (Some patients will receive a letter or texts from the surgery asking them to contact the surgery and they should do so if instructed).
Most patients in the 5 GP surgeries that make up the Lower Valley PCN will be vaccinated by option 1 -3 above rather than the GP surgery.
4 of the GP surgeries in the Lower Valley have signed up to deliver the CV19 vaccination in the Autumn – Northolme Surgery, Rastrick Surgery, Church Lane Surgery and Longroyde Surgery. Even then the number of vaccines each surgery can provide will be lower than last year and how the vaccine will be offered to patients may be different. Rydings Hall patients will need to contact the National Booking Service to book an appointment to receive the vaccination.
Housebound patients of the 5 GP surgeries may be contacted by one of the local pharmacies offering to come to the patient’s house to give the vaccination. If this occurs, we strongly advise patients to take up the offer as the surgeries are not sure when they will be able to offer the vaccination to housebound patients.
Rydings Hall patients will need to take up this offer as Rydings Hall Surgery will not be offering any home vaccinations.
For any of the GP Surgery patients, the pharmacy offer, if the patients are contacted by the pharmacy, is the timeliest way of getting the vaccination as soon as possible.
The vaccine to be used in the Autumn Campaign will be Moderna for most patients. Pfizer will also be offered to those under 18. Astra Zenica will not be offered in the Autumn Campaign.
If patients are not able to have Moderna or Pfizer due to allergies then patients are encouraged to contact the National Booking Service to book an appointment for the alternative vaccine (likely a new vaccine, that was licensed for use in February 2022, called Novavax).
For more information about the Autumn 2022 Campaign (the criteria for eligibility or definition of immunosuppression) please see the attached information below.
The autumn booster campaign 2022 (DOCX, 16KB)
Table 1 criteria for 3 primary doses aged over 12 years (DOCX, 16KB)
Table 2 Criteria for a third primary dose of COVID-19 vaccine in children aged 5-11 years (DOCX, 16KB)
Table 3 clinical risk groups 16 and over (DOCX, 27KB)
Table 4 clinical risk groups aged 5-15 (DOCX, 23KB)