Observatory Medical Practice Patient Participation Group
This weekend we did something useful.
We have been meeting as a PPG since 2014. Our meetings with the practice are usually informative, often educational, and sometimes frustrating. The frustration is because we want to feel that we are more than a ‘talking shop’. This Saturday we finally achieved our middle P – and participated in something that is really going to make a difference.
The two practices in the Jericho Health Centre, along with three other city centre practices, were amongst the first centres nationally to offer patients the COVID-19 vaccination. The logistics required to organise this are monumental.
The current vaccine, produced by Pfizer, needs to be stored at -70C. It cannot be moved more than 4 times (and 2 of those are involved in the delivery), it comes in boxes containing 975 doses. Once it arrives and is opened it has to be given out in 3 and a half days. Practices only get a short notice period of when their supply will be delivered.
The first group of patients to be offered the vaccine are those aged 80 and over along with some front-line health and care staff.
Once their delivery was confirmed, the practices needed to contact over 900 patients (or their carers) and schedule an appointment for Saturday. While many people are very keen to have a vaccination, they are also nervous and have many questions.
They had to think about how to use the building and make sure that patients were socially distanced. Staff rotas had to be agreed, nurses, doctors, admin staff all working on what would normally be a day off.
This is where we came in. Our offer of support was accepted by the practice and we were asked to be the outside stewards.
Jericho, in Oxford, is a delightful place to live, full of narrow streets, cafes and restaurants, and of course, no parking places.
Groups of 50 patients were booked to come in every half hour from 8.30am to 6.00pm. As many of them were not patients at the Health Centre they were not familiar with its location. While many of the over 80s walked or cycled to their appointment, some needed to be brought by car and were less able to walk any distance. There is road access to the back door of the building, but no parking, and of course double-yellow lines.
So what did we do?
We organised for 2 volunteers to be at the front and back doors for hourly shifts. We did socially distanced queue management, explained to patients and carers the one way system (in the front door, out of the back). We helped people find their taxis and relatives once they had been vaccinated. (Apart from the two ladies who went for coffee without telling the person who was waiting for them for an hour!) We let the most disabled people in by the back door. We learned how to do traffic management, discouraging those who left their cars unattended with the engine still running.
We talked to patients on their way in who were naturally anxious, we gave thumbs up to those coming out, we explained to passers-by what was going on. We helped to guide people into the building and looked in awe at the clockwork efficiency of those giving the vaccine. Working continuously but welcoming every patient with a smile.
But what was so unexpected was the gratitude of the patients and their relatives and carers. We tried to make light of it – ‘we’re not really doing much, the hard work is going on inside’, but people were genuinely grateful. When one woman came up in floods of tears, saying that this was so wonderful for her parents, we had to shed a tear with her. One young man asked to take a photo as he felt it was a unique moment in history.
So for one day we were able to forget about the awfulness of the pandemic and feel that there is hope for 2021.
We will be back for the 2nd round of vaccinations in 3 weeks time!
Oxford Patient Network 