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The NHS is rallying an army of retired doctors, health visitors and physical therapists to embark on the country’s largest mass vaccination program, The Guardian learned.
The extraordinary effort in England will also include district nurses and street chemists alongside GPs in the campaign to immunize 22 million vulnerable adults, followed by the rest of the population.
NHS documents seen by The Guardian show that implementation will depend in part on “inexperienced personnel” who will have received two hours of online training before starting work.
The slides also reveal the code names of two of the most promising vaccines in development: the Pfizer / BioNTech version is called “Courageous” and the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine is known as “Talent.”
It is understood that retired doctors, some of whom returned to the forefront to help the NHS during the first wave of the pandemic, will again play a key role in launching the vaccines. The Local Government Association confirmed that councils are talking to the NHS about how health visitors and district nurses can manage it.
Describing the details of the launch, one of a series of slides shared with GP leaders by NHS England last week makes it clear that while experienced staff are expected to know how to administer vaccines, “inexperienced staff will need to undergo e-learning training for each Covid-19 vaccine before they can administer the vaccine. “
“The training is being developed by Public Health England, is expected to take around two hours to complete (per vaccine) and will be available on the Health E-Learning Platform,” he added.
Staff currently being hired to ease pressure on GPs and nurse practitioners, such as social advocates who often link lonely older people to social activities such as dance groups and gardening, will also be “integral members” of the vaccination teams, reveal the slides.
They add that training for “non-clinical personnel” preparing to administer injections will be conducted online and will be based on “materials already available for the flu and will include the Covid vaccine.”
GP leaders said the NHS manpower shortage means staff who don’t normally administer injections will have to administer Covid vaccines given the unprecedented scale of the task. Vaccination programs generally involve children or the elderly.
“We would hope that primary care networks [groups of GP surgeries] and other providers to ensure staff administering vaccines are fully trained. But we recognize the challenges of the workforce in having a sufficient number of people who do vaccinations, so there may be professionals who do not normally vaccinate and who will have to train to do so, “said Ruth Rankine, director of the primary care network of the NHS Confederation.
“They have assured us that online training is sufficient. This would be for the clinical groups in charge of the commission to make sure that this is the case. “
Access to vaccines in the UK
In the space of a week, two potential Covid vaccines have yielded promising interim results, with an efficacy of 90% to 95%, raising hope that mass immunizations will begin in earnest early next year pending the regulatory approval.
Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, England’s deputy chief medical officer, has described the launch as “one of the most important vaccination programs, if not the most important, that we have run for decades,” while Matt Hancock, the health secretary, he undertook a “gigantic logistics operation.”
The NHS is preparing to start administering vaccines from December 1. But on one of the slides, NHS England makes clear its view that 2021 is more likely. It says: “Given the uncertainty about whether and when a vaccine can be approved, we are planning to be ready from any date in December, and mass vaccination is more likely in the new year.”
The slides also state that:
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Injection “adverse effects” can include injection site pain and tenderness, but also involve “mild systemic events … such as headache, fatigue, fever, malaise, and muscle pain.”
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Patients will only have to wait at the vaccination site for 15 minutes after their injection if they plan to return home; Last week NHS England suggested that all recipients should stay that long.
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Both Pfizer and Oxford vaccines involve “logistical constraints that will be more significant than we are used to” due to complicated storage and distribution protocols, especially with Pfizer’s product, which must be kept frozen at minus 70c.
NHS England plans to announce in a few days the location of the first “designated sites” where people considered a priority for health or age reasons will go for their coup. They will include surgeries for general practitioners, church halls, fire stations, libraries, council offices, sports centers, and town halls.
It is also finalizing a vaccine “rollout plan” that will lay out in detail how it will immunize all sectors of the population, including nursing home residents and staff, NHS staff, and people in prison or health facilities. mentally secure.
Professor Martin Marshall, President of the Royal College of GPs, said: “It makes perfect sense for GPs and our teams to play a key role in this given our experience and expertise in delivering mass vaccination programs.
“But we will not be able to do it alone in addition to providing the vital services our patients depend on, so we will seek support elsewhere in the health service, including volunteers who we have been assured will receive appropriate training. “
