Published:
3:21 PM March 9, 2021
The modified bus will visit Suffolk communities with low Covid vaccine uptake rates
- Credit: NHS Ipswich and East Suffolk CCG
A mobile coronavirus vaccination bus has been dispatched to visit the Suffolk communities where jab uptake is lower than the rest of the county.
The modified vehicle is set to tour east Suffolk for at least four months and will visit people from minority ethnic communities, those with certain disabilities and others who are vulnerable due to poor access to vaccination centres.
As well as making physical access easier, the clinicians on board will answer patients questions and reassure anyone who has concerns about the vaccine.
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The Chesterfield Drive Practice is one of those included in the merger
- Credit: Archant
A trio of Ipswich GP surgeries are set to merge - creating a new medical practice with nearly 30,000 patients.
Ipswich and East Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is set to discuss the proposed merger of the Chesterfield Drive Practice, Norwich Road Surgery and Deben Road Surgery.
The surgeries are all within a mile of each other in the north-west of the town and have already been working together since April 2020, as they are all part of the Suffolk Primary Care group.
As of January this year, Chesterfield Road Practice had 12,408 patients, Norwich Road Surgery had 9,813 and Deben Road had 7,291 - meaning the new surgery would have 29,512 patients on its books if approved.
Tom Hunt
The coronavirus vaccine is being rolled out in Suffolk
- Credit: Charlotte Bond
Last Saturday, Her Majesty The Queen was vaccinated at Windsor Castle, joining the over 80s in the first phase of the roll-out of vaccines for the elderly.
This comes after the approval last Friday of the Moderna vaccine, which joined the already approved Pfizer-BioNTech and our own Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
More than 3million people have now been vaccinated with their first dose, marking a strong start to the largest vaccination effort in in NHS history. The last time I checked, this was more than the rest of Europe combined.