EICC and Surge Clinics

Well it’s been a wee while since I last updated folks but as I have had a couple of weeks annual leave I have only undertaken two shifts since the closure of the QMU site.

My first shift was an 8 hour Saturday shift at EICC which was quietly steady but not really that busy. Quite a good way to begin to get to grips with the different processes and systems in place. There were a number of colleagues there from QMU as well as a few from my earlier life in health visiting in Edinburgh. It was a perfectly reasonable place to work even if the passing of the day in the outside world was completely invisible.

The following day a small number of us were asked to staff a drop-in surge clinic in the south of the city, set up in a GP surgery at short notice to facilitate access for local people over the age of 40 to their first or second vaccine dose. Unfortunately I’m not sure how well it was advertised in advance as the only way we managed to drum up any business at all was to head across to a nearby shopping centre and almost dragoon or press gang a small cohort of more or less willing participants. We vaccinated a total of 12 individuals in the course of an eight hour clinic. I understand that these surge clinics can be a bit hit or miss but hopefully if they are to continue then more people will know about them and more people will attend.

Meanwhile the infection rates are increasing quite dramatically all over the country but fortunately these are not translating into similar, linked increase in hospitalisations. So far the severity of illness for most vaccinated people seems far less than previously which is a good indication that the vaccination programme is, as intended and hoped, breaking the link between Covid infection and serious illness and death. Hopefully this trend will continue.

Meanwhile there is also planning taking place for booster vaccines from September for vulnerable individuals and those over 70 (and eventually over 50) which indicates that I may be at this for a wee while yet. While I reserve the right to finish at any point I also wish to see as few mainstream NHS staff involved in this programme as possible so that routine NHS care and service delivery is available to all who need it and so that the NHS can focus on reducing waiting times for all who have had their care cancelled, delayed or deferred over the last 18 months or so.


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