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Standard of care at the Covid Vaccination Facility

Posted By Rotary

"Standard of care at the Covid Vaccination Facility"

About: North Devon District Hospital / Covid Vaccination Programme

(as the patient),

With the current level of Covid rising I am worried about the standard of care at the Leisure Centre vaccination facility.

At the moment it is being visited by the most vulnerable and from my experience there is a need for more supervision.

The volunteers are great and I have actually been one, however maybe because of a lack of supervision the standard has dropped to a frightening level since I was helping.

I have requested that I be contacted by a senior member of staff, but as that hasn't happened I thought I had better write.

The volunteer at the door is absolutely fine asking if you have any symptoms, checking you are wearing a mask and directing you to the sanitiser.

On entry there are notices to stay socially distanced, however you are directed to stand in line on "footsteps" that are at best 1 metre apart not two and even though nobody behind you are asked to step forward.

On my visit there were two lines so that on arrival at the check in, despite there being three desks two were manned next to each other hence no gap which meant that you are shoulder to shoulder with the person in the other line making a mockery of social distancing.

The same is true of the next section with people actually coming up right behind you as they wait to be vaccinated.

Another volunteer was handing out questionnaires which after being read he was collecting and then handing them out again further down the line without sanitising them.

Bearing in mind that this is the most vunerable group I rather fear that we are being put in danger as there are no tests of those visiting other than asking if they have symptoms and from what I have witnessed basic safety measures are not being observed.

The explanation given that the two metre distance was now not mandatory by the person on the check in desk seemed odd as although mask wearing is also not compulsory everyone was being told , rightly, to wear one.

I trust that my observations will be acted on.

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Responses

Response from Alison Newton, Operations Support Manager (Northern Service), Seasonal Vaccination Clinic (Northern Services), Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust 3 years ago
Alison Newton
Operations Support Manager (Northern Service), Seasonal Vaccination Clinic (Northern Services),
Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 20/04/2022 at 16:04
Published on Care Opinion at 16:39

Dear Rotary

Thank you for spending the time to share your observations following a recent visit to the Covid Vaccination Centre in Barnstaple. I have read your comments and would like to respond to the queries raised as follows:

All staff and volunteers are supervised throughout the clinic sessions but during busy periods this can prove challenging due to the increased demands on the service we provide.

I myself am unaware of a request for a senior member of the team to make contact with you but would be happy to do so if I am provided with your contact details.

Thank you for your positive comments about the volunteers on the door, which I will pass on to the voluteers and also staff that monitor the flow from the car park into the Leisure Centre.

We have taken note of the comments you have made regading social distancing. This can be a challenging area as people naturally will nove forward when they see a queue move and this is something that we unfortunately cannot monitor closely during busy periods.

We regularly have two check in desks in the clinic but do have a third desk set up in the background where we will place staff during busy periods to prevent too muc delay to the patient.

I am unsure which questionnaires you are referring to but guidelines can change frequently on how paperwork is handled during the clinic but we will take on board the comments that have been raised with regard to this.

Standard questions are asked by the volunteers/staff who monitor patients coming through from the car park, then again at the check in desks and finally by the vaccinators. These questions are the formal checks that we make to every member of the public that enter the building. We also ask the public to sanitise their hands and request mask wearing, if they are not already doing so. This is in line with Trust policy,

If I can help further with your observations then please let me know and I would be happy to respond.

Yours sincerley

Mrs Alison Newton

Service Manager - Covid Vaccination Team

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by Rotary (the patient)

I appreciate what you say and clearly the person who claimed he had contacted you and I would be contacted me was in error. The questionnaires I mention are the ones that are laminated and should be sanitised before handing out but were not and whilst I have witnessed the session when busy the occasion I had my booster was not. Hopefully by drawing you attention to the problems it should be enough.

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