Volunteers Celebrated as Scarborough Rugby Club Vaccinations Come to an End

COVID vaccination clinics at Scarborough rugby Club came to an end yesterday with volunteers delivering the final session at the venue.

Over 86,000 vaccinations have been delivered by the teams in Scarborough over the last year.

Future vaccine clinics will take place at GP surgeries in the town.

Volunteers from Saint Catherine's have been among those helping run the vaccination centre with 17,000 volunteer shifts being filled in the last 12 months, more than 100 volunteers have given their time freely to act as vaccination centre marshals at Scarborough Rugby Club

John Stevenson was one of those helping out at the clinics.

The clinic at Scarborough Rugby Club has been operated by GP practices in the town with support from an army of volunteers, including a large number from Saint Catherine's volunteering team.

John Stevenson says many of them were doing shifts week after week.

December was the busiest month for the volunteers since the vaccination programme began:

• 26 different clinic dates were held in December, across venues such as the Rugby Club, Brunswick and Brook Square.
• 44 different shifts took place of around four hours long. This meant 214 volunteer slots, which were filled by 65 separate volunteers.

The volunteers have received hugely positive feedback from the NHS staff who run the clinics and patients alike.

Haxby Medical Group's Matt Hudson said the volunteers were ‘invaluable’, adding:

“They are really helping to take the pressures off NHS services. They’re an integral part of the clinic.”

Tracy Calcraft, fundraising and marketing director at Saint Catherine’s, said:

“This has been a hugely successful collaboration and that is down to our wonderful volunteers. To continue giving their time freely to help out during such a difficult year has been amazing to see – and has made a real difference in our community. Thank you to each and every one of you.”

In a letter to the volunteers Sally Brown, Clinical Director at the SCORE Primary Care Network said:

"As we move towards the end of the mass vaccination programme, I wanted to thank you for all your support and hard work through challenging times. The response of the teams across practices, colleagues and friends from St Catherine's Hospice, Scarborough Borough Council, the Brunswick Centre and Scarborough Rugby Club has been truly amazing.

As a community we all pulled together to make sure every eligible person in our borough, and beyond, had access to vaccines.
Each one of you should be very proud of your commitment to helping and supporting fellow residents to stay well and avoid illness due to COVID-19. By making sure residents in Scarborough are vaccinated we have reduced the risk of lots more people being poorly and admitted to hospital.

Across the four practices in SCORE Primary Care Network (Brook Square, Eastfield Medical Centre, Castle Health Centre and Haxby Group, formerly Central Healthcare) we have given 86,429 vaccines (14 January 2022). The uptake has been above the national and North Yorkshire average in most age groups

The reason our uptake has been so good is the accessibility of clinics on different days and different times in different locations as well as the teams who have visited care homes and gone out to do home visits. The best advert for any service is the experience people have and who they then tell. It is the contribution you have made to making every person's experience a positive one that people came back for second doses and boosters and encourage friends and families to come forward.

I think we all recall specific people we helped overcome their anxieties, needle phobias, those with disabilities, families, elderly and the reluctant. The aim was to ensure we offered an individualised approach within a safe, efficient, mass vaccination site and without you we couldn’t have provided the personal service we did.

Going forward, vaccines will still be available and offered at clinics in practices as patients become eligible for second and booster doses as well as anyone who comes forward for a first dose. Of course, new guidance and vaccines may emerge from the national JCVI and we will be ready to respond in the coming months and keep you updated.

I'm really proud of the way we have responded to the challenges and worked collaboratively to ensure our patients are protected. You all deserve a medal."