The leader of Gedling Borough Council wants NHS bosses to reopen the Richard Herrod Centre in Carlton as a vaccine centre to help increase the uptake of Covid boosters in the borough.
The site on Foxhill Road stopped delivering jabs in October after serving the borough as a vaccination centre throughout the pandemic.
Councillor John Clarke yesterday made the call after health bosses outlined the scale of the challenge facing local services to rollout the NHS Covid-19 booster vaccination announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The PM said everyone over the age of 18 will be offered a Covid booster jab by the end of December, provided three months have passed since their last jab, to help protect people from a fresh wave of infections.
He promised extra vaccine and mobile sites would be set up and opening hours extended. He said more volunteers would be trained to deliver the vaccines.
But concerns have now been raised by local health chiefs about people not being able to book an appointment close by.
In Gedling borough, 41 per cent of the population aged 12 and over have had their third booster jab.
Cllr John Clarke told local democracy reporter Matt Jarram that the logistics of doing what is planned will be very difficult.
He said: “The Richard Herrod site was closed by the CCG and I am happy for it to be used in some form.
“I would call on them open up part of it again. The offer is there. With the booster jab now high on the agenda we need to open as many places as possible.
“I think they are going to struggle personally. It has been rushed through without having the extra centres set up in advance.
“We, in Gedling, will help as much as we can but without the cash and direction then we will struggle.”
Amanda Sullivan, Accountable Officer at NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire CCG, said: “The NHS is working exceptionally hard to accelerate the booster programme to offer protection to as many people as quickly as possible.
“Locally, we are establishing a number of ways we can quickly step up the volumes of jabs given to the public.
“These will include increasing capacity at our sites, offering extended opening hours, standing up more vaccination sites, working to increase our vaccinator workforce, accepting the national support on offer which includes the military and supporting our GPs and community pharmacies to be able to offer the lifesaving jabs to as many people as possible.
“I want to be clear that our NHS workforce will be working very hard to vaccinate as many people as possible and I am grateful for the support across the local system in helping us to achieve this.
“The local NHS is prioritising bookings for boosters and I would urge eligible people to book a slot to guarantee their jab.
“If you are over 30 you can book on the NHS website or by calling 119. We appreciate the booking systems are very busy at the moment, but we would ask that you keep checking for more availability as it comes online.”
Mr Johnson said in his briefing to the nation on December 12: “I am afraid we are now facing an emergency in our battle with the new variant, Omicron, and we must urgently reinforce our wall of vaccine protection to keep our friends and loved ones safe.
“I’m afraid it is now clear that two doses of vaccine are simply not enough to give the level of protection we all need.
“But the good news is that our scientists are confident that with a third dose – a booster dose –we can all bring our level of protection back up.
“At this point our scientists cannot say that Omicron is less severe, and even if that proved to be true, we already know it is so much more transmissible, that a wave of Omicron through a population that was not boosted would risk a level of hospitalisation that could overwhelm our NHS and lead sadly to very many deaths.”
Third booster jab take up aged 12 and over so far across the city and county:
Gedling – 43,811 – which equates to 41.2 per cent
Nottinghamshire – 326,338 – which equates to 43.1 per cent
Nottingham – 65,559 people – which equates to 20.3 per cent
Rushcliffe – 48,658 – which equates to 45 per cent
Broxtowe – 44,736 – which equates to 42.3 per cent
Bassetlaw – 51,962 – which equates to 47.7 per cent
Newark and Sherwood – 48,283 – which equates to 42.5 per cent
Mansfield – 41,592 – which equates to 41.1 per cent
Ashfield – 47,296 – which equates to 42 per cent
