Israel's Coronavirus vaccine process:
In Israel, every resident is a member of one of the four non-profit health providers (HMOs).
In Israel, every resident is a member of one of the four non-profit health providers (HMOs).
https://twitter.com/Peston/status/1346405341785894917
Every HMO has a website, an app, phone lines. Israelis interact with their HMO to make appointments, get test results and manage prescriptions all in a single place.
The HMOs sent alerts to all over-60s and text messages to their phones: "you are eligible to make an appointment for a coronavirus vaccine".
For the first few days, you could only make appointments on the phone. Within two weeks, people could also use their HMO website or app, too.
At the vaccine centre, you show your appointment and walk in. By now, anyone over 60 can walk into their HMO's vaccine centres even without an appointment, too.
Vaccine centres include clinics, a sports arena, tents in town squares and even a drive-through!
In the vaccine centre, you take a number and wait to be called. You can also book an appointment for your second dose while you wait.
When your number is called, the nurse asks your ID number, your name, year of birth and if you have any allergies. That's all put in an iPad. It takes less than 30 seconds.
Then you bare your upper arm and get jabbed. In and out of the nurse's station in 2-3 minutes, depending on how long it takes to pull your sleeve down.
Vaccinated people are asked to wait 15 mins to check for adverse reactions. And that's it! You can go.
The only part that needs skilled personnel is the jab itself, and that bit takes just 3 minutes, though it could be longer for less mobile people.
The NHS is much more hodgepodge and disorganised than Israel's HMOs, so if it wants to do more paperwork, fine. But hire administrators to do it, and keep the nurses' hands free to do the vaccinating!
Some challenges Israel faced: the most elderly and vulnerable can't easily make appointments or come to vaccination centres. ariehkovler.com/2020/12/israel…
Especially with the finickity Pfizer vaccine, it took a while to scale up vaccination efforts at remote sites like care homes, but they're doing 20k offsite vaccines a day now.
Stock management also posed challenges because of the Pfizer vaccine's short shelf life. With the UK using the much more stable Oxford vaccine, they can be more flexible.
One important advantage Israel has: a very young population. High birth rates mean that a relatively small proportion of the population is over 60.
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