Covid-19 vaccination programme rolls out at Thornton Little Theatre

Patients registered with the Torentum Primary Care Network, which comprises of three GP practices in Thornton and Cleveleys, visited Thornton Little Theatre on Fleetwood Road North this morning to become some of the first patients in Wyre to receive the Covid-19 vaccine.

The Torentum PCN, which was formed in June 2020, includes patients of the Cleveleys Group Practice, The Crescent Surgery and The Thornton Practice, serving around 33,000 patients altogether.

Thornton Little Theatre, which is currently closed under national lockdown restrictions, was offered to the NHS by Wyre Council as a hub for vaccinations, which began at the venue today.

Dr Susan Fairhead, from Cleveleys Group Practice, said: "It's the first day we are vaccinating, and we are starting with the Pfizer vaccine which was delivered to us yesterday.

"We also plan for the rest of the week to get more vaccines, and we plan to be vaccinating people in their care homes as well, starting tomorrow.

"We're getting more vaccines next week, and our aim is to have vaccinated, hopefully within the next two or three weeks, the first couple of cohorts which will be the over-80s, all the healthcare workers and the care homes.

"It's an extremely exciting time, we've been looking forward to this for weeks.

"Luckily one of the practice managers at Thornton, Amy Sissons, has very good associations with Wyre Council and they were more than happy to provide this venue."

The three practices within the Torentum PCN also ran their flu clinics from Thornton Little Theatre.

Dr Fairhead continued: "We found that it was extremely good.

"We could socially distance people safely, we have facilities for people to be able to sit for 15 minutes post-vaccination, and it's a super place for us to be running it from."