A large-scale COVID-19 vaccination centre capable of vaccinating over 500 people a day will open at The Riverside Centre in Newport tomorrow, but there has been confusion over letters sent to elderly residents this weekend.
The Riverside Centre in Newport will be open 7 days a week, between 08:00-20:00, starting from Monday 1st February. It compliments vaccination provisions at GP-led and hospital services on the Island at Westridge, Shanklin, Carisbrooke, Freshwater and at St Mary’s Hospital.
Islanders will need an appointment to get their vaccine with most people being invited via letter. This letter will give locals the opportunity to go onto the national booking system and book an appointment slot, or call 119.
However, confusion has been caused this weekend with many over 70s receiving a letter, but unable to book an Isle of Wight vaccination slot. Residents have gone onto the national booking system only to find that the few appointments available were all in Portsmouth or Southampton.
If people are unable to book an appointment on the Island, the NHS says the national booking system may offer an appointment on the mainland as an alternative. Islanders should continue to check the booking system regularly as more slots on the Isle of Wight will become available.
Dr Dan Baylis, Chief Medical Officer at Solent NHS Trust, who are running the large-scale vaccination centres across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, said:
“We are excited to be delivering the COVID-19 vaccination programme at scale to help protect people living on the Isle of Wight from COVID-19.
Article continues below this advertisement “This vaccination rollout is thanks to the fantastic partnerships we are building on the island with healthcare partners and community organisations. We are particularly grateful to everyone who has volunteered to support us at the centre through Community Action Isle of Wight.
“I would encourage everyone eligible to get vaccinated against COVID-19 when they are invited by the NHS.”
Dr Michele Legg, GP and chair of NHS Isle of Wight Clinical Commissioning Group, said:
“The opening of the Riverside Centre vaccination centre on the island is great news for our community. As well as having four GP-led vaccination sites and the St Mary’s Hospital Hub, having a sixth will really help us vaccinate our residents as quickly as vaccinations reach us.
“It is great news that the opening of the vaccination centre will help us provide the first dose to many more people, this alone will not slow the spread of this virus. We must continue to wash our hands regularly for 20 seconds, wear a face covering outdoors and maintain social distancing.
“I want to thank everyone for all their efforts in keeping this up over the past 10 months and make a plea that they continue to do so”.
Those who are being vaccinated, as well as harbour users, will need to travel into the area via Fairlee Road, through Seaclose. There will be no access to the centre via Sea Street.
Pay and display parking and drop of points will be made available on the harbour.
When leaving the Riverside Centre or harbour, vehicles can exit over the bridge via Sea Street, or can return via Seaclose and Fairlee Road.
Pedestrians can access the site on foot from any direction.
It is currently unknown how many people have been vaccinated on the Isle of Wight, but it is estimated to be in excess of 30,000.
“Pay and display parking”. Seriously????? FFS IWC get your sh*t togther – no one should have to pay to park to get a government mandated vaccine. DISGUSTING.
Love how the parking charges have been high lighted into the story to make sure everyone brings enough change to pay!!
You couldn’t make this up what a joke
a very minor contribution to the overall cost, should the fuel be FOC also, or possibly a complementary Cab
Well, the councilors do have to have their jollies. Disgusting.
Next the cou ncil will be placing a parking meter in the Crematorium car park.
dont give them ideas
I would be more than happy to pay a parking fee to get this injection free of charge.
I wonder how many GPs come out of hiding to help.
If they all stopped hiding it could be 3 times+ more than 500 a day.
You have to pay to park at the West Wight Medical Centre car park when you have your jab.
These articles keep talking about a letter, but people are getting phone calls and more worrying text messages containing links. How do you know if the texts are scams or not when you cannot see who sent the text.
I received a text. I called the surgery on the number I always use. It was genuine. Don’t use numbers given on letters, texts or emails, just use the number that you know from experience.
My friend has received a letter to go to the mainland for his vaccination, he is 73 years old and has diabetes ihe is classed as vulnerable,what a stupid idea
No charge at Westridge where I had mine last week. Very well organised and appointment done by phone to my GP surgery at the invitation by text received from my local GP surgery.
Shush don’t let the council hear you.
Be careful there at Westridge as there is a large sign stating it is a Staff Permits only Mon – Fri & penalty charges apply
As usual too much reliance on the internet, I haven’t spoken to many people but those that I have, re vaccinations, have all had phone calls not letters. Surely everyone is ,or should be, registered with a GP practice and contactable through them. Forget booking by computer it just ‘muddies the water’.
Well said, exactly my feelings having tried to book an appointment for my 76 year old wife who received her standard NHS letter Saturday morning. Absolutely no joy for an Island appointment but plenty offered on the mainland up to 60 miles away
So now we are asked to just keep trying for an Island appointment as the Riverside centre opens tomorrow. I expect that is already booked up!!!
Why can’t the GP surgeries contact everyone on their books? Who gets phoned and who gets the NHS letter? Of our small group of friends my wife is the only one to receive a letter, the others some younger, have all been contacted by their surgery and had their first vaccination!
I got my letter on Saturday am and successfully booked my appointment for Monday, had to go back and forward on the booking system a few times but it worked fine then.
Why on the island do we find people want to moan about everything. For god sake big deal you have to pay parking. To protect your health this is irrelevant. Get a life i bet most of those moaning are old people who are never happy unless there is a negative
Exactly why quibble over paying to park ,
Not being rude but no one has been out much so I doubt it will break the bank !!!!
I cannot see what the problem is ,you are getting the vaccine for free .
Ok Ron and sensible. Try this. Received letter yesterday, Yippee!! Read the NHS letter carefully and called the number. I thought this is easy, Wrong. A robot asked me if i spoke English. Fair enough, i wouldn’t get very far if all the info was in anther language. I was then put through to my new friend Mohamed who tried to be helpful. Mohamed took my details and said ” yes you are in the approved vunerable group” and offered me the following sites with available slots Christchurch, Poole, Havant and Portsmouth. I asked ” is there no slots on the Island,” computer said NO. Advised to keep phoning.
I know these places are not the end of the world, BUT, come on. Just hope i dont slip through the net.
Hopefully get a call from my GP. Well parking charges on the Isle Of Wight seems the cheaper option.
That’s exactly my experience. Received letter yesterday, tried online and on 119 and was offered slots as fair away as Bournemouth, Guildford and Salisbury. Tried 119 today, explained that I was on the Island and that Riverside Centre was opening tomorrow and was informed by the call handler that this centre was not on her list. In the meantime, a neighbour informed me that both he and his wife rang 119 yesterday and were given appointments for Tuesday. WHAT IS GOING ON?!
i could never understand why the island has to have a portsmouth post code why have we not got our own . perhaps our MP could get us our own post code .
Get off your butt and go and get your injection stop whining.
The parking charge is definitely cheaper but it is not my fault re postcode problems , the point re parking some people are moaning about having to pay to park .
I cannot take any responsibility for where they tell you to go 4 the vaccine.
I think you failed to appreciate the fact that most of the people above 70yrs of age are retired and live on their pensions only. Parking money is just like “pinching money” from their pockets which has got very limited ‘depth.
There is strong evidence that, at a conservative estimate, at least half the 80,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19 in 2020 were caused by lockdown. This puts SARS-CoV-2 within the fatality rate of influenza, and blood on the hands of the UK Government.
I take it you have a source for this strong evidence, care to share the reference?
Try the governments own site for starters and ask why no one is recording any deaths duet to influenza or pneumonia ?
Lockdown Sceptics: Govt paper estimates pandemic policy ‘collateral damage’ will kill 105,000: 46k from hospital/care home chaos; 18k from cancelled ops; 40k from economic and mental health impact of LD.
Thumbs down?for that post! Just shows what plebs in denial are out thereYou can’t change all the sheep brains unfor! I agree with you.and plenty of other neglected illnesses hsve caused more deaths but the brain washed just wont listen lol
Might listen if you supply evidence. Simple. Oh, and by evidence I don’t mean some cobbled together rubbish from YouTube or Farcebook!
That may be so, but without lockdown the number of deaths could have been 160,000 or many more.
I f there really is strong evidence; how come it is not public knowledge? I have heard nothing about it. Sounds like more propaganda spouted by the Covidiots to me.
Perhaps if you turned off the propaganda and listened to the professionals that due to their different opinion are heavily censored.
Try Dr Mike Yeadon, Dr Roger Hodgkinson and plenty more.
I looked that up and all credible sources say less people are actually dieing during lock down as a result of not being in harms way. People who might have otherwise been crossing busy streets, riding bicycles, working with heavy machinery, working at heights. I’d like to know where you heard more people are dieing?
The whole letter appointment system is rubbish. We had a letter on Tuesday, and we were offered everywhere as far a London when there is a center one mile from us in Gosport. We rang them and they said the Gosport one wasnt even in their list! So I complained on the facebook account of the surgery running the Gosport one [shich is our own doctors practice] and lo and behold, we got a phone call the next day offering us on yesterday which we attended.
Cannoy understand why you removed my post !
Why can’t people stop moaning about having 2 pay for car parking ,absolutely ridiculous if you want to protect your health a couple of quid is cheap !!!
Let’s see if this gets posted?
WELL SAID, Miss Sensible. My thoughts precisely.
I haven’t got a car, I will have to bus to get a jab at a cost of £7 return. I will gladly pay that to protect my health, I’m a pensioner on state pension. If you can’t afford the parking don’t drive a car!!
There is limited parking, even less with social distancing, so pay & display will ensure spaces for those too disabled to walk bike or park elsewhere & walk.
Those individuals complaing about computer showing options not suitable for them, have a duty to educate themselves sufficiently to visulize an overview of why computers give information & leave the choices to be made each individual human!
Note: The purpose of a discussion is to build up a clear picture of whatever the object of the discussion, (like doing a jigsaw puzzle together) then view the “Visualisation” from different points of view.
Sounds like you’ve a few pieces of your puzzle missing
The confusion over letters being sent out originated at the start of the vaccination rollout program when the health secretary Matt Hancock stated that all those in the priority groups for the first wave of vaccinations will be contacted by either letter, text or phone call. As I understand it is a private company involved in sending out these letters. However, there should be a consistent, single method for contacting people, preferably from your local GP surgery which involves a phone call with an appointment available locally.
For those receiving DHS letters for the jab , i hope this helps. Some weeks ago we were advised not to contact your GPs Practice to enquire about the covid vaccine. We were advised to wait for a call, text or letter from the NHS. Ok all strait forwards. Received letter from NHS and followed instruction. After a few attempts realised Island appointment’s were fairly rare. The last person from the119 number said the problem is when i gave the PO post code it only gave her mainland centres, Joy, She said why dont yo call your GP? I said you’re not supposed to do that !!!. She said 2 just do it” So i did. After a bit of a wait, Got an appointment For Wednesday. no hassle at all.
So anybody having trouble ignore the letter and call your GP. Hope that gets you past the system. Good luck.
Thank god! Back to normal then? Take off face nappies? No! Stop social distancing then? No! Open up pubs etc? No! Well it stops you getting covid? No! Ok so have I missed the point of having the vax? Oh , the symptoms aren’t as bad if you get it. Ha ha ha, ever felt you been cheated!