There has been a lot of confusion recently about letters being sent to patients- we hope this clarifies things for you.
There are two separate systems running for Covid vaccinations; government run, mass vaccination centres and local, GP led vaccination services. Some of your closest mass vaccination centres are in Malvern, Birmingham and Worcester. For the surgeries in the North Cotswolds, your local GP led service is run from the North Cotswolds Hospital in Moreton.
The government are sending out letters telling people they are eligible for their vaccination- the latest of these being in the 55-59 cohort. The reason the government are sending these letters out now (rather than waiting until we have finished vaccinating the previous two cohorts) is to keep numbers at the national sites as high as possible.
Many people are choosing to have their vaccine closer to home and are waiting for an invitation to their local centre. Your local centre is currently using a text messaging system of appointment booking. If we do not have a mobile number for you, or get no response, we may then send a letter but it will be clearly marked from your GP surgery.
If you do receive a letter from the government but wish to have your vaccine locally, please ignore the letter and wait to be invited by your GP surgery for your vaccination (via text/phone/letter).
Please bear in mind that these two systems are separate. It takes 2-3 working days for your GP surgery to be notified if you have had the vaccination elsewhere, and we cannot tell if you have an appointment booked at a national site. If you have an appointment booked with us at the North Cotswolds Hospital, please make sure you attend. If this is no longer possible, or you have had the vaccine elsewhere, you must cancel the appointment yourself- mass vaccination centres and community pharmacy teams cannot do this for you.
Many thanks for your understanding and helping us in the North Cotswolds to keep the vaccination programme running as smoothly as possible.