We are pleased to announce the commencement of our Spring Covid Booster campaign, with a dedicated clinic scheduled for Saturday, 26th April. Given our limited resources, we are prioritising sending booking links via text to patients who have mobile numbers on record. Our small admin team is also reaching out by telephone to those without mobile numbers.

We are being supplied with the Spikevax vaccine this season and will not be able to offer an alternative. Due to the nature of the vaccine delivery, appointments must be booked in blocks rather than individually. Consequently, we have decided not to hold midweek Covid clinics this season, as our nursing team appointments are in high demand.

If you are unable to attend the clinic on 26th April, please contact the 119 service via their website (https://www.nhs.uk/get-vaccine) or by calling 119 for alternative availability.

Please note that we must adhere to NHS guidelines on eligibility, which include:

• Adults aged 75 years and over
• Residents in care homes for older adults
• Individuals aged 6 months and over with a weakened immune system

Residents in care homes for older adults are eligible, but carers and staff in care homes are not, as the programme is focused on protecting those most vulnerable to severe disease. This decision is beyond the surgery’s control. For more information on the eligibility criteria, please visit: Who’s eligible for the 2025 COVID-19 vaccine, or ‘Spring Booster’? – UK Health Security Agency

We kindly remind patients to be considerate of valuable appointment time. If you need to cancel due to exceptional circumstances, please inform us as early as possible. This allows someone else in need to use the appointment, especially when demand is high. A report on our appointments from 1st April 2024 to 31st March 2025 shows that there were 192 instances where patients did not attend. This includes situations where patients either did not show up without notice or cancelled on the same day, leaving insufficient time to offer the slot to another patient. With our average appointment time being 15 minutes, this equates to 48 hours’ worth of appointments, or 6.4 working days of appointment time.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

We wish all of our patients and wider community a wonderful Easter!