NHS Lothian is making a final call to its first mass vaccination centre before it closes its doors for the final time this Sunday.
Teams at the mass vaccination centre at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) will administer the final dose of the lifesaving vaccine on September 19 and they are urging anyone who still needs a first or second dose to drop-in.
Vaccination teams at the EICC have been working flat out to provide as many people as possible with protection from the virus since the centre opened its doors in February.
Now, as the national vaccination programme enters a more community-based phase, the vaccination centre is preparing to close its doors for the final time on September 19 to allow extra local clinics to emerge in its place.
The four Health and Social Care Partnerships within Lothian will take responsibility for the administration and delivery of the vaccination programme within their local areas of East Lothian, Midlothian, Edinburgh and West Lothian.
As part of that, the EICC will close as a vaccination centre. Edinburgh HSCP will use the Lowland Hall as a large centre as well as opening a smaller, community-based venues across the city.
The three other health and social care partnerships are also finalising their plans to ensure they can continue to reach as many people as possible.
Patients, however, will not feel any impact of the change in operation. They will continue to receive appointments in the usual way, attend their local clinic or go along to their nearest drop-in clinic.
Pat Wynne, Nurse Director Primary and Community Care, NHS Lothian, said: “Our teams have achieved a massive amount in such a short space of time and we are really grateful to them for making such tremendous efforts.
“They have helped provide protection to over quarter of a million people from across Lothian in just one centre alone – that is quite an achievement.
“We would also like to thank the EICC and we are really grateful to their teams for helping to make this programme possible.
“As we move into this new phase, we know that the vaccination programme will continue to help save the lives of more of adults and young people across Lothian and I would urge anyone who has not yet completed their course to do so as soon as possible.”
Marshall Dallas, EICC CEO, said: “We have been proud to work alongside NHS Lothian by facilitating Edinburgh’s main vaccination centre, where we have welcomed many thousands of people in our community every day to be vaccinated – without doubt this is the most important event we will ever host.”
Teams have been working to administer the vaccine in mass vaccination centres, drive-through centres, community-based centres, on a bus, from a vaxi-taxi, in pop-up clinics, in shopping centres, in football stadiums and at a racecourse.
The health and social care partnerships will now build on the success of the innovative programme to ensure that Lothian as a whole continues to stay on track.
Many of the centres will continue to operate as they had before but may be supported by a range of new smaller or pop-up clinics.
A spokesperson for the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership said: “We are entering a new phase of the vaccination programme which will allow us to create more convenient, community-based clinics. We will continue to Lowland Hall as the main vaccination centre in Edinburgh, but we will support that with 11 other centres spread across the city to make it as easy as possible for people to attend.”
