Harrogate Advertiser readers call for 24 hour Covid vaccinations

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It comes as some hospitals and clinics in London are expected to begin trialling 24-hour vaccination services within the next week.

Many across the district hope this move will be extended out of the capital and across the country to vaccinate as many people as possible and see some kind of return to normal life in the coming months.

Hundreds of people replied to a post on our Facebook page asking if they would be open to the idea of visiting a vaccination centre in the early hours of the morning if it meant more vaccines could be administered over a shorter period of time.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said all UK adults should be vaccinated by September and the Harrogate Advertiser has launched a ‘Shot in the Arm’ campaign with our sister titles across JPIMedia calling for community pharmacies to be allowed to join the vaccination programme and treat more people.

One Harrogate resident who replied to us on Facebook, Pam White, commented: “Yes, anytime. Not everyone could do, but if people who can get up and go to the vaccination site under their own steam in the ‘early hours’ do so then there would be more slots available in the daytime for those that can’t. So really it would be a win-win for everyone.”

And many others agreed, saying they would be happy to receive the vaccine whenever it was possible if a local 24-hour centre was open to the public.

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Anika Bohle added: “I don’t care what time of night or morning. I am shielding and I will go whenever and at whatever time I am given.”

NHS England’s chief executive, Sir Simon Stevens, said earlier this week that people are being vaccinated four times faster than new cases of the virus are being detected, with around 140 people per minute now receiving the vaccine. In a national survey of 2,000 adults conducted by Medicspot, 70% said they believed the vaccination programme should be a 24/7 operation, with 64% willing to have their vaccination in the middle of the night.

Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi said the trials would begin by the end of the month, before the Government looked at plans for how the service could be rolled out across the rest of the country.

Although the current 8am to 8pm vaccination times have been working for the over-80 age group, it is thought that the 24/7 centres will allow more people to receive their jabs, especially in regards to younger people of a working age.

Mr Zahawi said that 8am-8pm vaccination slots work “much more conveniently for those who are over 80 and then as you move down the age groups it becomes much more convenient for people to go late at night and in the early hours” - an idea supported by locals Zoe Fox and Camilla Thrush, who wrote on Facebook that the 24-hour slots would be useful for younger people and those who are less vulnerable.

Zoe added: “Some shops are 24/7 and people must use them or they wouldn’t do it.”

However, some Harrogate Advertiser readers raised issues around childcare, shift work and access to transportation at unsociable hours, saying a 24-hour centre would have to be central and accessible by foot.

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Charlotte Claydon wrote: “It’d be physically impossible for me. I rely on care support to get up and about and as there is no care agency support available between 10pm and 7am in North Yorkshire and hasn’t been for years, it just wouldn’t be possible for me to attend.”