A CAMPAIGN to ensure county residents do not miss their Covid vaccine has emerged on social media amid claims some appointment letters are not being delivered on time. Social media posts sharing a freephone number to check the status of appointments are urging people who think they should have had their first jab by now to call it. But while some said they discovered they were due to be vaccinated in a matter of days when they called, the Scottish Government has insisted that there is no issue with letters going out. Instead a spokesperson said that a delay between appointments being booked and letters arriving was to be expected.
CONCERNS remain over vaccination rollout and I was able to speak with both the Health Secretary and the health board last week. They’ve provided some understanding that I thought I’d share, as well as assurances that it’s on track. The issue of many being asked to travel to Edinburgh is being addressed with the mass vaccination centre at Queen Margaret University opening up, East Lothian Community Hospital also, and improvements in supply to GP practices which remain the bedrock for its delivery. Some problems have arisen, as neither the call centre nor national helpline are operated by the health board. That’s understandable as, setting it up at short notice, it will have been easier to go to an established company than starting from scratch.
A RETIRED home help was among the first people in the Lothians to receive a Covid-19 vaccine at the new drive-through mass vaccination centre at Queen Margaret University (QMU) in Musselburgh which opened today (Wednesday). The snow brought by Storm Darcy that has battered the county, dubbed ‘Beast from the East 2’, did not stop the centre opening this morning as planned. Mary Foster, from Musselburgh, was one of the first to receive a life-saving vaccine. She said: “I think this is great, I’m really excited and I think people who don’t want to be vaccinated should think again.”
THE final preparations were yesterday (Friday) being put in place for the drivethrough mass vaccination centre, and first of its kind in Lothian, at Queen Margaret University in Musselburgh ahead of its opening on Wednesday. The site will initially be capable of vaccinating about 720 people every day at 12 stations. Attendance is by appointment only. It has an overall capacity of 16 stations for vaccinating up to 8,000 people a week. Teams of vaccinators will be able to deliver vaccines to people while they are in their own cars. When it opens it will become the third mass vaccination centre to open in the Lothians, joining the Edinburgh International Conference Centre and Royal Highland Centre, with the latter due to open next month.
A DEAL has been struck which could see “homes for life” for elderly county residents created on the site of a former hospital. East Lothian Council has agreed to purchase the former Herdmanflat Hospital site in Haddington, with a view to transforming it under proposals from NHS Lothian. Plans are being drawn up for the site off Aberlady Road, which is more than 5.5 hectares in size. Discussions between the local authority and NHS Lothian have been ongoing for more than four years. A spokesman for the council said that the site “presents a unique opportunity for an innovative project that could deliver an integrated extra-care housing solution, with a range of tenure options and housing types”.