A NEW Covid-19 vaccine bus welcomed people on board for the first time today.
The vaccinations took place on the bus from the Meridian Center in Peacehaven.
The bus, which is the first of its kind in the Brighton area, offers a mix of walk-in vaccines – subject to NHS eligibility criteria – and appointments with general practitioners.
The Mobile Vaccination Bus is a partnership between Brighton and Hove Buses, the here non-profit social health care enterprise, which provides NHS services, and Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).
Here, Executive Director Dr Helen Curr said: “Over the past few months, Here and General Practice has established a fantastic partnership to deliver more than 50,000 vaccinations to people from Brighton, Hove and the Havens to the Brighton Racecourse.
The first vaccination bus for the Brighton area
“We are excited to expand this partnership to create a new innovation with Brighton and Hove Buses to enable ever more innovative ways to deliver vaccines to where they are needed most.
“We are very grateful for the extraordinary efforts being made on all sides to make this work and we look forward to seeing the buses in action very soon.”
Brighton and Hove and Metrobus Managing Director Martin Harris said he was pleased to see the first mobile vaccination bus in the Brighton area up and running, facilitating vaccine delivery to hard-to-reach and vulnerable communities.
The bus joins those already in service at Crawley and Merstham, which the bus company manages in partnership with the Alliance For Better Care.
Martin said: ‘We are very proud to be part of the NHS coronavirus vaccination program.
“It is also a privilege to work alongside Here, which does a great job of putting patients first by integrating their health care.
“The bus is ideal because it has an integrated one-way system and it is easy to ensure good ventilation.
“Some people, like those who protected, may prefer not to go to the hospital for their injection and get on a bus instead.
“There was a lot of enthusiasm among our drivers to drive the vaccination buses.
“They insisted on leading them because they want to be part of the national effort to reach everyone and help protect people.”
A Metrobus bus became the UK’s first mobile Covid-19 vaccination unit when it opened in Crawley in February.
Since then, Martin said the bus company has received a number of inquiries from hospitals, GPs and bus companies about setting up similar projects in other parts of the country.
To learn more, visit www.hereweare.org.uk.
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Source: www.theargus.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-05-06 14:25:46
