For everyone that isn’t an international tennis star, here is a piece of great news, just announced by Wokingham Borough Council.
For more than four months officers and Conservative Councillors have been lobbying the Berkshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to get a stand-alone walk-in vaccination clinic set up in Wokingham.
The great news is that, once again, THEY HAVE SUCCEEDED.
Starting from this Friday (18/2), a walk-in clinic will open at Wokingham Library offering first, second and booster doses of the Pfizer vaccine to all eligible people over the age of 12.
This is another great success for your Conservative councillors and your council Adult Services team.
DID YOU KNOW?
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Wokingham was the first local authority in the country to refuse hospital discharges into our care homes during the pandemic until the NHS could guarantee the patient was COVID free. This was met with significant push back from the Department of Health, but, within four weeks all other local authorities had followed our lead. Locally this prevented countless Covid cases across our care home network.
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As a result of our petition Wokingham Medical Centre and the local CCG have agreed to resource and resume face-to-face GP appointments at Burma Hills surgery from April. We are continuing to push our campaign to ensure they keep their word.
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Councillors and officers at WBC continue to lobby the CCG to provide additional resources at Wokingham Medical Centre to increase appointment numbers and reduce waiting times.
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Adult Services at WBC is on budget, while 70% of departments at other councils across the country are not.
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Through demand management and improved planning we have controlled the impact of inflation in our Adult Social Care budget, mitigating the impact down from 4% down to 2%. That's a saving of nearly £1 million, which can be spent on other vital services.
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We have improved services trough the voluntary sector hub and strategy, including with the new dementia care home.
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We supported, and continue to support residents, across our community, through the Covid community response and One Front Door.
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Our aim is to be in the top 25% of all local authorities for Adult Services within the next three years.
One of the cornerstones of moving forward and living with endemic Covid is vaccination. While the uptake rate is good in the borough, there are still many people who are yet to take up the offer, and we have often felt it would be significantly improved by the provision of more local vaccination centres.
We have campaigned for months for a standalone vaccination centre in the borough and are pleased that the CCG has agreed to our request. We would encourage all residents to take advantage of this local facility and get vaccinated, and we look forward to welcoming residents in for their jabs.”
Nobody going for their first, second or booster jab will be questioned about why they haven’t had it yet. The onsite staff will be happy to welcome residents. Anyone who has questions about the Covid-19 vaccine can come and chat to the health professionals working at the site or email the council’s vaccine support team on [email protected].
Everyone would like to see the back of the pandemic, but it is important that we don’t lose sight of what protects us from the virus. While Omicron is milder in the sense that it has so far resulted in a lower hospitalisation and death rate than prior variants, it can still make you very sick and it is highly transmissible. The vaccine is what helps make this sickness less serious, reduce transmission and it is still strongly recommended.
If you tested positive in December and were unable to get your booster, it’s now time to come forward for it (28 days/4 weeks from when you tested positive). Parents, carers and guardians are also encouraged to bring children and young people over the age of 12 to this new site over half term (for 12–15-year-olds this must be 12 weeks from the date of their positive PCR test if they were recently infected).
