Anyone work/volunteer at a vaccination centre?

[CraftyGin]

And if so, what is your traffic like?

I am a volunteer marshal and our throughput is now tiny. We have reduced the number of days we open. It is quite heartbreaking, as there are at least 20 workers on site (all but 4 volunteers are paid employees).

I am in Surrey. Wonder what it is like in other parts of the country.

Thankyou Craftygin and Xeno for your replies. Thankyou for all your help and dedication to everyone working in these hubs, I really hope everyone does get boosted/jabbed, our NHS is amazing & it's a shame takeups a bit hit and miss in some areas

@tinkerbellsays - we are always on the look out for people who are nervous at check in. Could you get someone to come with you for moral support. They could then explain that you have a needle phobia and we would take you out of the queue and straight to a quiet booth with a bed outside the main vaccination hall. We have a couple of very reassuring vaccinators so we'd ask one of them to come out to you and they'd take as long as you needed. You could even have music on your airpods and look out at the garden rather than watch what was happening if that was easier for you.

I work in a vaccination centre. We are very quiet currently for all the reasons already stated. However, our contracts have been extended to June, and discussions are currently being held nationally about a further extension to March 2023 as a national vaccination service..
I have no more information about what that may look like but there are still people needing vaccines - some 5-11 year olds are now eligible for example - and we're still seeing people for first doses. We're also registering a lot of vaccines given overseas onto the NHS app.

It might pick up a bit, many got covid over Christmas and New Year so would have to wait a month for their booster, DS did and has only just become eligible for his booster again, he hadn't already had it as he is only 29.

BIL works for one of the health boards in Scotland.

They’ve let a lot of their volunteers go, and several of the walk-in centres have reverted to their normal use. (One was a sports hall, another an arts centre, for example.)

Vaccinations and boosters are still happening, they’re just now happening primarily in clinics and community hospitals, and performed by HCPs and sometimes nurses.

I know what you mean about the camaraderie, and I do think some of the volunteers were just quietly told on a Wednesday afternoon not to come in on Thursday morning and that was that.

But I think bigger picture it’s a positive sign. The pandemic isn’t over but it’s now in a different phase and our systems are adapting to that.

Another positive flipside — several of the vaccination hubs were normally used for other things. Sports halls, arts centres, conference facilities, an old cinema I think in one town. These venues are now reverting to their original use, and the staff who worked there are getting the shifts and in many cases their jobs back.

Really interesting to see other people’s experiences. I volunteer at a large “purpose built” centre (London) and we are where other “pop-up”centres have defaulted to. It’s open 7 days a week, 8am-8pm and before Christmas it was open daily to midnight, doing about 1500 jabs a day. Recently it’s been VERY quiet. Last week I was on a 4 hour shift basically manning the entry point and we had about 25 punters in 4 hours. I think we are currently doing about 150 a day. We seemed fairly fully staffed although I did hear that vaccinators were getting shifts cancelled and/or finding it hard to get them.

It’s frustrating as booster rates are only about 60% in this area and we are poised and ready to give jabs. Walk ins are available and there is even plentiful and free parking. But we’re just not seeing people at the moment. Not sure what the longer term plan is. TBF, we’ve had quiet periods before. I remember September 2021 was very low footfall.