Derby and Burton Hospitals Are 'Absolutely Ready' To Roll Out Covid-19 Jabs

Derby and Burton's hospital trust would play a pivotal role in the issuing of a Covid-19 vaccine, if and when one is ready.

The University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust says it is "absolutely ready" and waiting to help roll out the jabs.

This follows the news this week from firms Pfizer and BioNTech, who say their vaccine, still in early development, has shown in preliminary analysis that it can offer 90 per cent protection from the virus.

However, there are significant manufacturing and logistical issues in administering the vaccine currently being worked on by the firms because it has to be kept in ultra-cold storage at below minus 80 degrees celsius.

Gavin Boyle, chief executive at the hospitals trust, said: "There is the issue of vaccinating our own NHS personnel and also vaccinating the public as well, so we are working with partners in Derbyshire and Staffordshire to work out where a vaccine could be stored because there are issues about the temperature at which the vaccine can be stored.

"There are a couple of frontrunners and one has to be stored at a very low temperature indeed and requires specialist facilities to do that.

"We will be one of those centres.

"There is also a discussion about how we would set up places where people could go to receive the vaccine and how they would be staffed.

"In Derbyshire, Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust would be the lead provider in managing that side of the response and we will be working with them to help do that."

Amanda Rawlings, the trust's director of people and organisational development, who oversees the rollout of vaccines, said: "We are now having to understand the protocols and procedures around cold chambers, the temperatures that the vaccines have to be stored at, there is quite a lot to work through, it is not like this is only now being worked on.

"This has been worked on for weeks, there have been colleagues looking at different processes depending on which vaccine we might get so there is a working group across Derbyshire.

"We will be responsible for vaccinating our own colleagues and if it is the vaccine they are looking at (Pfizer and BioNTech) it is in two shots. So we'll have to make sure we have got good logistics and planning behind that.

"The important thing for us as a trust at the moment is to get our flu vaccinations completed over the next couple of weeks and we are absolutely ready then to focus on the Covid vaccination as it comes through, so it is all work in planning at the moment.

"The whole of Derbyshire and Staffordshire, across both systems, have been working for weeks thinking through how to do this. It is a complicated exercise to do a whole population. When we know more about the tiered order of who gets it first we will be ready to go."

If the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine is approved, following further substantial testing, which they hope to achieve by the end of the month, the UK would receive 10 million doses by the end of the year, with a further 30 million doses ordered.

It is thought the UK will prioritise care home staff and residents as the first recipients of a vaccine.

There are still many unanswered questions around the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine including if it stops you spreading the virus and how long immunity lasts.

It is currently proposed as a two dose vaccine, taken weeks apart, which means further logistical issues in making sure people receive both doses and can make the journey and the time to receive both.