Last week, the NHS’s rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination began. You might have seen that some of the first people in the country, and the world, to get the jab were Dr Hari and Ranjan Shukla at the RVI in Newcastle.
As the process is now underway, we wanted to let people know how it will work.
In Newcastle, the city-wide vaccination programme is being coordinated by Newcastle GP Services (NGPS) – the NHS Federation who work with us and all other practices across the city.
What this means is that they are working through a pre-agreed list of priority groups and then giving us the go-ahead to invite the relevant patients.
The vaccinations themselves are taking place at some large venues across the city rather than in GP practices. This means practices like JHP will be able to maintain our usual services, and the larger venues make it easier to keep to social distancing guidance.
When it’s your turn to be invited for a COVID-19 vaccination, we will contact you.
Please do not contact us, NGPS or any other NHS site asking to be put on the list. This will not change when you can get vaccinated and will make it harder for other people to contact us for help.
Priority Groups
Not everyone can be vaccinated at once, and those at higher risk must be vaccinated first. That’s why a nationally-agreed set of priority groups has been set.
The top priority is patients and staff in care homes, followed by those aged 80 or over along with Health and Social care workers.
Next, it’s the 75+ group, and then people over 70 who are in high-risk groups.
After that, it’s everyone over 65, and adults aged 18-65 who are in high-risk groups.
It then goes in 5-year increments – those aged over 60, people 55 and over, and then everyone above 50 years of age.
The final step will be to cover the rest of the population.
Vaccine FAQ
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