High Sheriff of West Sussex, Dr Tim Fooks, explains roll-out of covid vaccinations

Hope. It is a small word in our language but, in many ways, it is also one of the biggest. It speaks of better times ahead, healing and fresh starts. And as I joined the team at Pulborough Medical Group (PMG) last week, at the very end of 2020, it was exactly this sense of hope which I found bubbling throughout this very special health centre.

I was there to take part in the administration of one of our generation’s modern medical miracles, a completely new type of vaccine that has been made ready for use within just 12 months. Not long ago, this would have taken at least five to ten years.

The coronavirus pandemic has ensured that we have all become as well-informed about viruses, vaccines and R values as we are about the weather. As such, we understand the problems created by the increased transmissibility of the latest variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the part each of us must play until the R value is consistently less than 1.

We appreciate the immense strain that Covid-19 is placing on every aspect of the health service and our economy, and, of course, we mourn over the tragedy of so many lost lives. But we also understand that the way out of this crisis is dependent on the development of a working vaccine.

And, in this regard, we know what it means to be patient.

Now, in surgeries like Pulborough Medical Group, this patience is being rewarded.

As the roll-out of the first available Covid-19 immunisation, Pfizer-BioNTech’s mRNA vaccine, was initiated in early December, Pulborough and several other local practices worked with the NHS to establish the uniquely complex -70°C cold chain required for the delivery and administration of this particularly delicate vaccine.

Furthermore, due to the equally unusual 20-minute technique required to prepare each vial of five doses, every member of staff involved in preparing and administering the vaccine had to complete extensive training.

However, PMG, and its patients, were ready for a vaccine delivery before Christmas and it was therefore with a sense of anticipation and relief that the first delivery arrived on December 29. The same day, the first group of patients started to arrive for their booked appointments and the first vaccine against Covid-19 was administered at 14:07.

Within 10 days, by working bank holidays and weekends, the PMG team will have given a total of 2,000 doses to those over 75 years old and health care workers, in line with NHS guidance. Very few side-effects have been reported, with my experience being one of just a slightly sore arm.

A full immunisation course requires two doses. However, it has now become apparent that, after just 10 days, just one dose of the Pfizer vaccine confers an 89 to 91 per cent protection rate against severe infection, which lasts for at least 12 weeks. With this news, and the imminent arrival of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which is less complicated to administer, it would seem to be safe and sensible to concentrate our efforts on ensuring as many people receive a first dose as quickly as possible.

The required second dose will be given after an interval of two to three months and I am assured the plans to achieve this across West Sussex are rapidly being put in place.

Every immunisation programme requires a top-quality team effort by every part of the NHS but the urgency created by Covid-19, and the complexity of the first vaccine, has required a phenomenal amount of additional work by PMG and every organisation and practice in the West Sussex NHS family.

And so, on your behalf, as both High Sheriff and a GP, I would like to congratulate and thank them all so that we can start 2021 with such a welcome and long-awaited sense of hope.

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