Holderness Health has said it will not be offering the Covid spring booster dose as it would negatively affect its core services.
In a statement, it said that it had listened to feedback from patients about the difficulty in obtaining appointments, and had instead decided to focus resources on maximising the number of available appointments both to see GPs and its nursing team.
It added: “The guidance received from NHS England is that practices should only continue to deliver vaccinations as part of the spring booster programme if they can do so without impacting on their core services.
“Given our own high levels of Covid absence and our catch-up programme of work for annual reviews, we do not believe that we can take staff out of their ‘day jobs’ for a sustained period to offer the booster when it is freely accessible in other locations.”
The practice has been working with the East Riding Clinical Commissioning Group to ensure that housebound patients and those living in care homes will still receive their booster dose even though they cannot travel.
The CCG has commissioned two community pharmacies, Wilberforce and Rimmingtons, which will be contacting housebound patients who are registered with the practice to arrange their vaccines. The CCG is asking for patience while it ensures that everyone is offered a booster vaccine.
For patients who can attend a vaccination centre you can either book via the National Booking Service: nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/book-coronavirus-vaccination or check out the local sites that are accepting walk-ins at: vaccinatehullandeastriding.co.uk
