It’s like ours. Only operates 2 days a week, 1 doctor, 1 nurse and a fireman doing 72 vaccines at 6 minute intervals each day. The rest of the week the doctor & nurse do their normal job…
The main town has about 4 little satellites like this and if it’s Moderna then they defrost on Monday and deliver 12 vials of 12 doses to each satellite …
It may not be big numbers but it’s a useful adjunct to big centres and means that doctors surgery can keep going as nearly normal. I look it as adding a bit of a doctor/nurse who could otherwise not be redeployed 100% to vaccines.
From what I see on the UK TV news, any Cathedral, Sports Centre, Salle Polyvalente, School Hall, or Discotheque would do. An old expression referencing the inability to organise a drunken evening in a brewery comes to mind. I’m with @toryroo on this one. 144 a week is just pathetic.
Our village pharmacist gives me the flu vaccine each year so why not the Covid vaccine as well.
Clearly it is beyond the organisational abilities of the powers that be to find out which of the 1700 inhabitants of our commune would like to be vaccinated, draw up an appointments list for a date or dates at the Pharmacie, have the vaccine delivered, and just let the Pharmacist get on with it.
I did ask mine and they have not been authorised or had the training yet. Nor is the process in place for storage so would have to have daily deliveries.
I think while this is so new it can only be done with a doctor in attendance. So it will be a while before confidence builds to allow it to be done with just a pharmacist.
The problem of storage would not arise with the Oxford vaccine as it can be stored in a fridge, surely the training is the same for the flue and vaccine jabs
I am just saying what my pharmacist told me. Remember this is France, there is always training! However I think the key point is the presence of a doctor which I believe is the same in the UK.
And there is no Oxford vaccine in this part of France as France has decided not to use it for the over 65s, and currently still doing 70+ age group. Here is is Moderna and Pfizer.
I spoke with my GP on Friday and he told me that starting this week each doctor would be allocated ten vaccinations and they would decide who to was most in need. I was one of them (generally speaking I’m not sure if that is good news or not ) He implied the vaccine would actually be delivered to his practice and I should call on Tuesday to see if that’s the case. This maybe only a PACA or even Var strategy.
I think that this this could be down to using the Pfizer vaccine which needs super cold storage temperatures before it is thawed enough for use and then trying to work out the demand for the thawed vaccine without wasting any of it.
Thanks for all your replies, On balamce it appears to be a caae of “wait and see” which is what I will do unless i hear to the contrary. At least the EU is only waiting the three week necessary before handing out the 2nd injection, unlike the Brits, who may not all get the 2nd jab.
You’re correct Robert. None of these buildings/halls are currently being used for anything else because of the lockdown so they are perfect for vaccination centres. The local one for me is about 10 minutes away and has been set up by several local health centres/surgeries who have come together to organise it. It’s like a military operation and vaccines are given by a team of nurses/health care assistants and others on a conveyor belt system so they are getting through many hundreds a day. It really is very impressive for a largely rural area.
Izzy x
I live in 79350 and Parthenay and Faye-L’Abbesse, even Mauleon, would be very handy. But all these centres are fully booked for 28 days and are not accepting any more appointments, even though the number of outstanding bookings seems to go up every time I take a look. I would have thought that the authorities would have opened a couple more centres - AFAIK there is nothing in Bressuire - which is where my GP surgery is located, but there’s nothing there, which is mysterious given the size of the local population.
So what’s going on ?
Reading the news it appears that France overall has a shortage of vaccine, which explains the difficulty I’m having. The manufacturers have reduced supply while they make production alterations to allow a greater flow of vaccine. Apparently.
The curve of first and second shots pretty well matches the delivery schedule, and France is giving the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine within 3 or 4 weeks of the first dose, so has to have those doses ready.
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) He implied the vaccine would actually be delivered to his practice and I should call on Tuesday to see if that’s the case. This maybe only a PACA or even Var strategy.
