Thread by @DrWallBolton

By request: Lessons Learned; Surge Vaccinating at rise of Delta Variant May/June 21 -SRO Vaccine lead Bolton (long thread 1/14)
uptake at rapidly ‘installed’ local vaccine sites was heavily supported by community ‘warm up’ and engagement via multiple methods:

2/social media, local and national media, interaction with local faith and community leaders and street level population visibility and engagement eg door knocking, leafleting- this created a ‘social movement’ of action across the town calling people to be tested and vaccinated.

3/Cross organisation working and system relationships across @BoltonCCG, @boltoncouncil @PHBolton1 colleagues was a significant factor in aligning key messaging and action– hands face space, isolate, testing and vaccination-a joint approach across our population to get rates down

4/A conscious effort and commitment from self as SRO and @helenlowey DPH to work with teams in tandem and support each other’s key messaging and their teams in aligning test and vaccine surge areas provided a ‘presence’ that increased uptake of both key aspects.

5/ Engaging local community leaders, faith communities, council members etc and providing accurate information about local test and vaccine sites enabled a united front to our population spreading key messaging and signposting to both testing and vaccinating local offers.

6/Eligibility and who was vaccinated was key line of enquiry within the media. Often people didn’t know what the eligibility criteria were but giving them permission to attend and discuss was valuable.

7/ I asked everyone to come forwards to discuss if eligible with the line ‘we are looking for reasons to vaccinate not reasons to turn away’. People came to find out and eligible people left vaccinated. Digital poverty and lack of information was an issue.

8/ Listening to our communities around what barriers were being faced helped us address these eg ‘priority access for pregnant women’ and ‘female only’ vaccination queues with female vaccinators. Some said we were being ‘ridiculous’ and ‘soft’ but more people got vaccinated.

9/ Pfizer only on pop up/ bus sites allowed every eligible age group/patient to be vaccinated. Time for second doses was lowered and thousands of people became eligible pop up sites for second dose AZ were stood up and a campaign around ‘you need 2 to get you through’ began.

10/ Rapid review of sites was key- during our 5 week surge period we moved sites 3 times that weren’t working and weren’t capturing people- keep it fluid and rapid review and reassess. Military were invaluable in being able to move sites at scale and pace @BritishArmy

11/ Many sites doing smaller numbers appeared to overall hit more people for vaccine uptake. limited travel ability or will was a key factor in delayed uptake. 1 week we had 2 sites across the town centre- Victoria square and uni site- patients declined to walk from one to other

12/People appear happier to queue than they are to book and plan an appointment especially younger cohorts. It reduces DNAs and reduces workload for booking systems while enabling people the fluidity and impulsivity to be vaccinated

13/ coordinating vaccinating at scale and pace is exhausting physically and emotionally. People don’t always agree with your decisions or methods. Having great colleagues and remembering why you came -to save lives is key.

14/ during surge 5 weeks 89000 bolton vaccines were given - 34000 extra to a normal time frame- all site activity went up not just surge sites I believe down to social movement that was created. We cannot rest now we must keep going.