My Account
Coast to Coast vaccination centre staff prepare the Pfizer vaccine for injection. From left, Dr Tony Townsend, Melisa Robinson and Rebecca Hay.
Mahurangi’s first Covid-19 vaccination centre in Wellsford is performing around 150 vaccinations per day – more than double initial projections.
Coast to Coast Health director Dr Tim Malloy says Coast to Coast, which runs the centre at 72 School Road, intends to grow this further in the coming weeks, but this will depend on its ability to hire more staff.
“The burden on our reception staff in our clinics is significant and while most people are understanding of the demand on us, some are less polite,” he says.
“We have worked tirelessly for months to build and set up this service at our own cost and employed a team of providers from scratch in the context of a national shortage of vaccinators.”
Dr Malloy says the centre cannot vaccinate everyone at once and some are being asked to wait, especially as appointments fill up.
The booking schedule is currently one week ahead.
“Our experience is that the further out you book, the more people don’t arrive for their appointments, which runs the risk of wastage,” he says.
“As we close on the three-week period, we also know our workload doubles, as we will not only be vaccinating the new people who are eligible, but also those returning for their second vaccine. Our goal is to increase our workforce to accommodate this load and our hours of operation shortly,” he says.
Dr Malloy says although the Ministry of Health (MoH) is saying persons can “expect an invitation” to be vaccinated, the MoH booking system is not up and running nationally.
This means an eligible person can book a Covid-19 vaccination by phoning any Coast to Coast Health Clinic.
Meanwhile, Northern Region Health Co-ordination Centre vaccine programme lead Mark Hannant says more GP clinics will start offering vaccinations in the coming weeks, along with a number of pharmacies.
“GPs and pharmacies that are providing the vaccine will contact their own enrolled patients to invite them to be vaccinated at their facility, in line with the Government’s rollout schedule,” he says.
He adds that outreach teams have begun vaccinating residents at aged residential care facilities.
Mr Hannant says everyone in Groups 1, 2 and 3 will have received an invitation to be vaccinated by the end of this month.
Group 1 includes border and managed isolation and quarantine workers. Group 2 includes high risk frontline workers. Group 3 includes people at high risk of getting sick from Covid-19, such as those 65 and over and those suffering other adverse health conditions.
