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Picture credit: Living better: Another successful clinic delivering the Covid Vaccine to our West Somerset over-80-year-old patients at Minehead Community Hospital.
There are wheelchairs and helpers available for anyone who might need them – in case anyone with limited mobility is worrying
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Well, it’s good news regarding the vaccine rollout in our area, it seems, as I have been invited to make an appointment – I am in the group 65+! What an excellent job our NHS is doing. That means that in about a month I can look forward to not being quite so vulnerable to the ‘lurgy’. Fingers crossed for everyone to be similarly placed very soon!
Yesterday I had my vaccination at Minehead Hospital. Apart from the 4 freezing minutes waiting outside in the queue to go in, the experience was as everyone else described, excellent. However, I had driven there on my own and although I had the Oxford vaccine, so no statutory wait, I was strongly advised not to drive for 15 minutes. I sat in the car listening to the radio.
I have had a very mild side effect that occurred about 12 hours later. At about 4am I experienced the feverish Flu symptom of shakes while feeling hot. This lasted about 2 hours. This morning I am fine though slightly aware my body has been in a battle. This is more comforting than worrying for me as I have assumed my antibodies were alert. Certainly nothing to worry about.Listen to Jan, Kit and Brian talk about their experiences of the vaccination on BBC Somerset Sound Breakfast show tomorrow Wednesday 20th at about 8.15 am .
95.5 fm or channel 722 on your television.Congrats on posting the picture, Jan!
And thanks to all willing to share your experience, I look forward to being in a queue in not too distant future!
I had forgotten to post this picture! Alison took it when I got home from the hospital yesterday, and it looked just the same this morning. I have just had another look! and it’s still the same. No pain, no swelling, nowhere near as bad as a flu jab, which also doesn’t give me trouble!
Kit Smith writes:
We have been for our New Lease of Life. They wouldn’t tolerate any ‘photos being taken during any part of the procedure.
We did manage to get someone to take a photo of us both in the waiting room just before we left.
The whole experience was really impressive from being spoken to as we arrived in the car park, having temperatures taken at the hospital entrance and being guided every step of the way. The actual vaccination was absolutely painless and we were in and out really quickly.
We are so relieved that we are now, hopefully, on the way to getting back to normal life.
Hope this is helpful. To refuse the vaccination would, in our opinion, be absolutely stupid.
Jan Lowy writes:
I duly had my jab yesterday afternoon, and completely agree with all that Basil had to say. Everyone was so efficient and friendly, and the jab was very quick – nowhere near as uncomfortable as the usual flu jab, and no after effects at all this morning. Alison took a photo of my arm when I got home, and there is a tiny red mark!
Basil Helman writes:
In the distance the thinning mist revealed two figures in high-viz jackets stamping their feet with their hands glumly stuck under their armpits to gather warmth. Not a scene from some Cold War novel but Minehead Community Hospital on a cold January Sunday morning.
We slow the car “When is your appointment? ” we are asked.
“Park the car and wait until five minutes before your appointment then go to the main entrance ”
Outside the main entrance we are met by two staff, one of whom proffers sanitising fluid and a new mask. Wife, a tyke, protests the mask she is wearing is straight out of the packet and Yorkshire thrift precluded her from taking another. She was eventually persuaded. Self, a sophisticated west countryman grabs the freebie. The second member of staff points a gun like object at our foreheads, only to take the temperatures. We are allowed to enter.
Inside, identities are established and labels provided. We are led to adjacent seats, sit down only to be called seconds later. Taken along the corridor it’s established which room is free. Phoebe will administer the jab. I sit down and further identity checks proceed after which data is entered into the network system. Do I take blood thinners? Answer yes! The keyboard clicks away. Formalities concluded Phoebe reaches for a syringe and, after a slight prick, plunges the needle into the left deltoid muscle. Interestingly, I subsequently find that by moving to a very thin needle the NHS has been able to save up to 20% of the available vaccine.
Once respectably dressed I’m led by another staff member towards the recovery room. However, seeing my wife ahead I accelerate only to be restrained – the two meter rule. I point out it was a woman I casually slept with and then, rather surprisingly, was quickly released.
We sit for 15 minutes in the recovery room where the conversation provides growing praise for the experience we had all been through. Whilst sitting there a nurse entered with a pair of eyes that we recognised from our local practice. From her we learn that the objective was to inoculate one person per minute over an 11 hour session and that this was the second time that such a session had been held.
Our time up, we proceeded to the exit where we were signed out on the computer at the door emerging back into the car park twenty minutes after entry.
During a recent Zoom meeting I described our experience as ‘exemplary’ and on reflection I see no reason to qualify that judgement.I’m left awestruck with the genius of two Turkish immigrants working in a German laboratory who made the vaccine and this visit possible.
The image of Minehead Community Hospital is provided by ‘Living Better‘ – a collaboration between the West Somerset Primary Care Network (GP Surgeries), and other local agencies and professionals, providing proactive and person-centred care with a clear goal; to increase and support peoples’ independence and well-being.
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