Category: Practice News

We are currently planning our 2022-23 Flu and Covid-19 Vaccination Programme. We are planning to vaccinate patients in the following eligible cohorts as directed by the Joint Committee for Vaccinations and Immunisations (JCVI):

• Residents in a care home for older adults and staff working in care homes for older adults
• Frontline health and social care workers
• All those 65 years of age and over
• Adults aged 16- 64 in a clinical risk group

There will also be a flu vaccination programme for children who are aged 2-3 on 31st August 2022 and all primary school aged children from Reception to Year 6 will be offered a vaccine in school.

In addition, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) will be widening the offer of the free flu and covid vaccines to more eligible groups. These additional groups will only be eligible once the most vulnerable, including the previously announced pre school and primary school children, those aged 65 years and over and those in clinical risk groups, have been offered the jabs.

The additional groups set to be offered the vaccinations in England will be:

• All adults aged 50 – 64 years
• Secondary school children in Years 7, 8 and 9, who will be offered the vaccine in order of school year (starting with the youngest first). These vaccines will be given in school.

The Rural Practice Network (Bruton, Milborne Port, Millbrook – Castle Cary, Queen Camel and Wincanton GP surgeries) collaborated successfully delivering the Covid-19 vaccination programme from 2020 – present. Therefore, we have decided to work collaboratively to provide flu and covid vaccinations to those eligible within our practice populations this year. We plan to administer both vaccines at the same time reducing the number of appointments and inconvenience for our patients. We will be offering a variety of dates, locations, day time, evening and weekend appointments.

We are awaiting our confirmed vaccine delivery dates in order to finalise our plans and schedule clinics. We will be contacting you at the end of August/beginning of September to make an appointment for you. We appreciate that patients have a choice of where they receive their vaccination, but we do hope you will choose to have it with us as we strive to keep this service local and within primary care to benefit our local communities.

Thank you from all of the Wincanton Team

05/04/2022

Due to unforeseen circumstances due to extreme staff sickness, our Clinical Team are short staffed but continue to work very hard to try and manage the current demand. Therefore, please be advised that we will only be booking emergency appointments. There may be a delay in responses to your requests and they will be prioritised by medical need. Thank you for your understanding.

After 30 years as a GP at Wincanton Health Centre Iain Phillips is moving to a different role within Symphony Healthcare Services and will no longer doing regular clinical sessions at Wincanton. Instead he will be concentrating on his quality improvement work for Symphony. He will continue to do occasional sessions at Wincanton to cover leave and undertake joint injections and minor surgery. He will also be doing some non-clinical sessions for the local primary care network and will continue his work as a GP specialist advisor for the Care Quality Commission.