Video: how the huge vaccination centre was set up at Westpoint

This video, produced by the NHS, offers a behind-the-scenes look at how the mass Covid vaccination centre was set up at Westpoint, and introduces many of the people involved in creating and running it. Volunteers from Network Rail were among those who helped prepare the buildings for the medical teams to move in.

The centre began giving jabs on Tuesday (January 26), along with another mass site in Plymouth. Between them, they will be vaccinating thousands of patients every day.

The vaccination programme being run by a group of 10 East Devon GP practices including those in Exmouth is also going strong – it gave around 3,000 jabs during last weekend alone. Because some patients in the other towns were having difficulty getting to the Tennis and Fitness Centre, the weekend clinics also took place at Sidmouth's Sid Valley Practice, the Coleridge Centre and the Honiton Practice.

Some patients in the Sidmouth area, registered with a local GP practice, may receive a letter from NHS England inviting them to have their jab at Westpoint. The NHS is making it clear that this does not mean they've been removed from their local GP's vaccination list – it is simply a way of offering people more choice as to where they receive their vaccination, and if they don't want to travel to Westpoint they can simply ignore the invitation letter.

People receiving these letters will also be given the option of booking an appointment at a pharmacy site offering the jab. One of these opened in Exmouth today, with more due to come on board elsewhere in the near future.

But people who are housebound and cannot travel to any of the sites need not worry – their GP practice will contact them and arrange a home visit.

With the local NHS reporting good progress in the Covid vaccination programme, it expects to start contacting people aged 75 to 79 in the coming weeks. Again, they will be able to choose whether to attend Westpoint, or a pharmacy, or wait for their own GP to contact them, and will be visited at home if they cannot travel.

The 10 GP practices running the Exmouth-based vaccination centre have thanked the 'amazing army of local volunteers' who have helped with the 'huge push' from the medical teams to administer as many jabs as possible. The practices concerned are the Claremont Medical Practice, the Raleigh Surgery, the Imperial Medical Practice, the Haldon House Surgery, the Rolle Medical Partnership, Budleigh Salterton Medical Centre, Woodbury Surgery, Coleridge Medical Centre, Honiton Surgery and the Sid Valley Practice.

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