"Covid vaccination"

Having heard some friends recount their experiences of Covid vaccination centres outside Derbyshire, I was very apprehensive when my turn for vaccination came. Their tales could be summarised as barely organised chaos. They agreed that they were concerned that they were at risk of infection, with large numbers of people milling around, little attempt at social distancing and stewards not really knowing what to do. I really did not want to throw away what was nearly a year of isolation.

I found out I had no need to worry. I attended the vaccination facility at Babbington Hospital in Belper, and was extremely impressed. An army of stewards were wonderful. Those outside must have been freezing and all must have been exhausted as it was after 5pm, nearly the end of a long hard day. Every one of them was cheerful - and not a forced cheerfulness of 'we've been told to be nice to people', but a genuine warmth. Every one of them interacted with me as I worked my way to the vaccination area. Virtually all of us seemed to be in the 75+ age group like myself, and there was no hint of patronising, sadly so common when encountering people in their position. No 'Come along deary' but lots of 'Hi, how are you doing, are you OK?'.

There was a chain of people on hand to give information from the car park entrance to the injection area. Passing one of them, there was always another in sight. At no time was I left wondering where to go next.

This is a mammoth undertaking, organised at relatively short notice, and needing a lot of people to make it work. I just wish I could thank everyone who was there personally. They were brilliant.