"Constructive feedback for covid vaccine arena"

I was pleased to hear that overall your experiences of the vaccination hub at the Arena have been positive.

Thank you for your constructive feedback which will be forwarded on to senior staff for consideration/action.

Kind regards

A detailed response is being written in response to this post and will be submitted within the next few days. Kind regards

Thank you for your feedback concerning the Vaccination Centre at Fly DSA Arena. Your comments have been shared with Sally Conlan, Deputy Nurse Director, Covid 19 Vaccination Programme. Her response to your comments is as follows:-

Location of the booking in desks. Yesterday I waited for 25 minutes outside the Fly DSA Arena to enter - it was very cold and raining and some older people were looking very cold. When I got past the booking in desk and into the Arena there was lots of space. There seemed to be a bottle neck at the booking in desk. If the booking in desks were further inside people could be queuing inside the building.

The South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Covid 19 Vaccine Programme Team (Vaccine Programme Team) have altered the booking in desks and their layout several times since the service opened in January 2021 to accommodate the checking in process. Generally, larger queues are seen inside the Fly DSA Arena hence the layout has been designed to accommodate this. We have recently employed more staff to cover break times so that there is no gap in the vaccination service. Please be assured that we are doing everything that we can to try and avoid a queue.

Information. At the first vaccine I could see some 'what to expect' leaflets stacked up behind a screen whilst I was queuing but I couldn't get to them. After I had had the vaccine I was given a leaflet which said that if I was pregnant I should tell the healthcare professional BEFORE having the vaccine. I wasn't asked if I was pregnant. At the second vaccine I noticed that there were some leaflets, including in different languages, available in different languages at the entrance. I couldn't see any resources for blind or deaf people. The leaflets weren't very prominent. There was a volunteer greeting us on entry and telling us where to stand. Could that volunteer also draw people's attention to the leaflets?

We have a host of different patient leaflets. For example, pregnant patients advice, what to expect after having the Oxford Astra Zeneca, the Moderna vaccine or after having the Pfizer vaccine. We also have easy read versions and versions in different languages. We are sorry you were not given a leaflet before you had your vaccine, but it may be the case that you did not require a leaflet pre vaccination. We are very careful with handing out relevant leaflets to patients so that we are not giving out incorrect information depending on the vaccine brand, information overload and trying to remain as paper free as possible due to infection control.

Regarding being asked if you were pregnant, the Vaccine Programme Team follows the national protocol and all ladies are asked if they are pregnant in the vaccination lanes by the vaccinator as part of the clinical assessment process.

If you were not asked this then we can only apologise. To stop this happening to others we would like more information from you regarding your appointment so that we can investigate this and potentially retrain or counsel the vaccinator.

We would need please your personal details, full name, address, date of birth, your NHS number if you know this and date of vaccine to fully investigate this matter. Please would you be able to contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) to provide this information. PALS can be contacted by telephoning 0114 230 7495 or by emailing sth.pals@nhs.uk

Provision has been made for blind patients as we fast track blind people to the front of the queue; they are given one to one assistance from the beginning of the process to the end.

In order to help our deaf patients we have recently purchased clear face masks to enable communication, allowing deaf people to lip read what are staff are saying.

We are currently exploring other ways we can help people with impairments and welcome any suggestions from the general public to help us with this.

Entry to the building. There were 4 lines of patients and 2 members of staff controlling entry to the door. On the right the member of staff was checking that bags of the 2 lines, (presumably security check) but for the lines on the left the bags were not checked. There were masks on a table. The lines on the right were told to swap their own masks for the disposable masks on the table. The lines on the left were not given any instructions and I guessed what to do by observing the other lines. It would be good to have a poster up telling people to use the hand sanitiser and to swap their own mask for the disposable one.

This is a very important observation, thank you for bringing this to our attention. Both lanes should do bag checks where relevant and ask attendees to change their masks. We apologise that you did not receive such a request and had to watch others to know what to do. Your comments will be fed back to our security management team.

It would be great to have the opportunity to give feedback e.g. a survey. I looked around for posters or leaflets but couldn't see anything.

We have posters in all lanes and exit points along with leaflets that are handed out to all patients with a QR code on to provide feedback. The posters are more recent and potentially could have been put up after your visit. Patients can leave feedback via PALS and social media as you have done. The Team Leaders at the vaccination centre also have a supply of our ‘Tell Us What You Think’ leaflets which can be used to provide feedback – both positive and negative.

It is really helpful to read such comments as you have made; this allows us an opportunity to make necessary and appropriate changes or to provide assurances that we are following correct and safe procedures within the vaccination centre.