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Vaccination programme is helping to reduce Covid fear, says Thurso doctor


By Alan Hendry

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A Caithness doctor has said she is "absolutely delighted" with the response to the Covid-19 vaccination programme and the way it is helping to reduce the fear surrounding the virus.

Dr Alison Brooks, of the Thurso and Halkirk Medical Practice, says uptake of the jab has been consistently high across the age groups – and she believes the "personal touch" from her team has been an important factor.

The practice held its latest mass vaccination clinic in Thurso High School at the weekend with more than 1000 patients attending.

“It is giving people this idea that we are moving forward and that there is life after Covid – there will be a way out of all this," Dr Brooks said.

“Yes, people still need to be careful and still follow hand hygiene and all the rest, but it’s not the same fear all the time that people are living in.

“Looking at the epidemiology reports that we get from the health board every few days, there have been zero cases in Caithness for the last two or three weeks. That in itself is encouraging, but we must not be complacent about the virus.”

She praised the contribution of her practice manager, Christine Tait.

“We’ve got a complete leader at the helm," Dr Brooks said. "Without Christine, this would not be happening. She is absolutely tremendous and is on top of it all the time.”

Thurso and Halkirk Medical Practice has a total of 6100 patients on its books.

Dr Brooks was able to report that vaccine uptake for the over-80 age group at the practice is 98 per cent, while for the 75-79s it is 99 per cent. There is a 97 per cent uptake for those aged 70-74, and the rate is 96 per cent for each of the 65-69 and 60-64 groups.

The shielding group is showing an uptake of 98 per cent, while it is 90 per cent for those "at risk" – a large group consisting of around 1000 patients.

Without Christine, this would not be happening. She is absolutely tremendous and is on top of it all the time.

“I think this is the beauty of the personal touch and the girls phoning patients," Dr Brooks said.

“We’re working through 50-59 at the moment. That’s the group that is supposed to be completed by April 15.

“The uptake is fantastic in that group as well, but the only delay in that group is we’re limited by the amount of vaccine we get. We are keeping plugging away.

“If people choose not to have it then that’s absolutely fine, but we are really keen that everybody in that group has been offered a vaccine by the 15th.

“We’ll be pretty close to everybody being offered a vaccine but it’ll be very dependent on what they give us.”

The practice has been administering both Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines and there has been no wastage.

“For the first doses at the moment they’ll only give us AstraZeneca," Dr Brooks explained. “We had a huge clinic last Saturday at Thurso High School with 1032 patients vaccinated [with second doses] and that was all Pfizer.

“It’s important that there is not a dose wasted. From the start of this we have never binned a dose.

“Of the adult population, which is the target population at the moment that we’re supposed to be vaccinating going by the government guidelines, we’ve vaccinated 69 per cent with a first dose and we’ve vaccinated 41 per cent of our adult population with a second dose. That equates to 1900 second doses that we’ve given.”

She added: “It’s a fluid list of numbers as well, because we get patients moving up from the south – there have been a lot of people moving to Caithness over the last few months, so we’ve had really quite an increase in our numbers in the practice.

“A lot of them come up to us either not having had a vaccine or having had one vaccine. Suddenly you’ve got a list of 15 people to locate and before you know it, it’s 25.

“They changed the guidelines and non-paid carers got added to the at-risk group as well… It is ever-changing.”

Nationally it has been reported that under-30s in the UK are to be offered an alternative to the AstraZeneca jab because of evidence linking it to rare blood clots. A review by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency found the risk of developing a blood clot was about four in one million.

Dr Brooks said this issue had not been a major talking point among patients at her practice.

“I think it has been mentioned a couple of times but it’s very much in the passing," she said. "People are just so, so pleased to get their vaccine.”


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