Vaccination service nominated for award

The Cheshire East roving vaccination service has been nominated for an NHS Parliamentary award, by local MP, David Rutley.

This follows on from the fantastic work they have been doing throughout the pandemic, aiming to get as many people vaccinated as possible, particularly in harder to reach communities. 

The service is made up of a multi-disciplinary team including the Swab Squad, clinical vaccinators and Cheshire East public health and has been coordinated in partnership with Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group, Cheshire East Council, Healthwatch Cheshire and clinically delivered by Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. 

The vaccination service has provided a variety of options for local people to access vaccines in a way that best meets their needs. Through uptake data, the partners have been able to identify both locations where uptake is lower and also social and cultural factors influencing access. This has then allowed the team to tailor their communications and engagement to specific communities. 

Since the commencement of the service in June 2021, there has been a total of 101 pop up clinics that have taken place across the service area, with a total of 4,085 vaccines administered. In addition to the pop up clinics, the team mobilised a dedicated vaccination bus, enabling access at street level and were also able to provide the vaccine to 414 people in alternative accommodation for refugees or people seeking asylum and 64 homeless people in alternative accommodation. 

Over the coming weeks, the team, with the same partnership links, will be moving beyond vaccinations to broader health support such as health and wellbeing checks. The team recently participated in a day dedicated to men’s mental health and offered blood pressure tests as part of their work. 

Speaking about the nomination, David said “The roving vaccination service provided by key partners across Cheshire has been a great success and they are very deserving of this nomination. Taking the vaccine directly to residents has been vital in protecting as many people as possible. I very much hope that the organisers of the awards will share my great appreciation for the team’s work – and that of many local residents – and I am looking forward to seeing their new health and well-being project building on the team’s successful work.”