Community nursing staff have been working round the clock to help GPs vaccinate patients who can't leave home.

NHS Community Services staff from Virgin Care have been supporting GPs with North Kent's vaccination campaign, visiting housebound patients to deliver the life-saving Covid-19 vaccine.

GPs, through primary care networks (PCNs), were targeted with vaccinating 15 million people in the first four priority groups by February 15. In North Kent, Virgin Care’s team worked in partnership with the PCNs in Medway and Swale, and Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley, to make sure that target was met.

Between October 2020 and January 2021, the teams supported the annual flu programme, vaccinating 859 housebound patients in North Kent who had been referred by their GP.

Following this success, and with such a tight deadline looming, Virgin Care was asked to help with the Covid-19 vaccinations of housebound patients and delivered 600 at short notice.

Senior clinical managers, such as Karen Inns who is Virgin Care’s operational lead for community nursing in North Kent, got back into uniform to help frontline colleagues, who worked seven days a week for three weeks to vaccinate the patients by the deadline.

Since September 2016, Virgin Care has provided adult community services in Dartford, Gravesham, Swanley and Swale including community nursing and occupational therapy among others. It covers all the services that aren’t delivered in a large hospital, known as secondary care, or classed as primary care, like GP practices and urgent care centres.

Dr Paul Staker, clinical director of Sittingbourne Primary Care Network, said: “Virgin Care’s optimistic approach was appreciated, and their ability to work quickly to pull together an efficient solution is tribute to their fantastic staff and services.

"This is an incredible achievement, and we’re grateful to Virgin Care for helping to make the vaccination programme in North Kent a success.”

Patrick Birchall, managing director for Virgin Care in North Kent, said: “We were delighted to be able to support the vaccine rollout locally. I’m proud of all my Virgin Care colleagues who offered their time and abilities to vaccinate some of the most vulnerable patients in our community at such short notice.

“Close working with GP colleagues for the benefit of patients is something we are passionate about and we look forward to continuing to build on this recent experience.”

Virgin Care operates more than 400 frontline health and social care services across England.

For the latest coronavirus news and advice, click here.

Read more: All the latest news from Kent