Wellsbourne

Wednesday 13th January 2021 Healthcare CIC Your local GP surgery in East www.wellsbournehealthcare.org.uk To all patients of Wellsbourne Healthcare, aged 80 and over

Dear Patient

You will soon be invited for your Covid-19 vaccine. Here is how it will work:

1. You will receive a text message to your mobile phone. Please follow the instructions in the text message to book your appointment at the Brighton Racecourse Vaccination Facility. This is the easiest and quickest way to get your appointment.

2. If you cannot respond to the text, you will receive a phone call inviting you to book your appointment

3. The texts and calls will come from our partners who are organising the appointments. They may be called ‘NHSNoReply’ or ‘HERE’ or ‘IAS’. You can trust them.

We are asking everyone to make their own way to Brighton Racecourse. There is free parking. Please travel by car, bus or taxi, or ask your family or friends to help.

We are arranging transport for those who cannot get there by any other means. If you cannot travel at all, even with assistance, we are arranging home visits. At this time, however, we cannot say exactly when these options will be available.

Thank you for your understanding. It is wonderful news that vaccinations are under way and we will reach everyone as quickly as possible.

There is more information overleaf, including how to let us know if you need travel assistance or cannot get to the Racecourse at all.

Yours sincerely

Sarah Webb, Practice Manager Wellsbourne Healthcare CIC

Wellsbourne Healthcare CIC, 179 Road, Brighton BN2 5FL Community Interest Company Number: 10974442

Vaccinations for Wellsbourne Healthcare CIC Patients at Brighton Racecourse

We are writing to you to let you know that the way you will be invited for this vaccine is different to how we normally invite you for vaccinations. This is because of the large number of patients that we need to vaccinate as quickly as possible

To offer the vaccine as safely and quickly as possible, we are working in partnership with other local GP practices and the Improving Access Service (IAS) for Brighton & , which is run by a company called HERE. We already work with HERE to provide evening and weekend appointments.

You will be invited by text message and/or phone call, these messages and calls may mention HERE or IAS rather than Wellsbourne Healthcare. You can trust them.

We are encouraging all of you to book an appointment for the vaccine and to do your best to get to the vaccination centre at the Brighton Racecourse. We know that this will be difficult for some of you and we appreciate that you may need the support of friends and family to get there. But this will be the quickest way for you to get the vaccine.

For those of you who are not able to get to the Racecourse, even with assistance, you can wait for a home visit. We are also trying to arrange transport for those of who are unable to manage a bus or taxi and who do not have family or friends locally to support you. However, cannot yet say when either of these options will be available.

If you would like the vaccine but are unable to get to the Racecourse vaccination site, please tick one of the statements below that best matches your situation and return this letter to the practice or phone us after 10am on 01273 005444 to let us know whether you:

Could get to the Racecourse vaccination site, if there was transport from door to door.

Could not get to the Racecourse vaccination site and will definitely require a home visit.

We will record this information and contact you when we are able to visit you at home or have arranged transport, so you will not need to call us to chase this up.

If you are temporarily housebound, e.g. recovering from an accident, this will not be your only opportunity to book an appointment and you will be able to book an appointment at the vaccination site if you are up and about again before we are able to visit you at home.