The team of vaccinators and volunteers ensuring vaccination clinics run smoothly at The Atrium Medical Centre have been praised by Dorchester Town Council.

Hundreds of people have volunteered to help patients attending for their vaccinations at the central vaccination clinic for Mid Dorset Primary Care Network (PCN).

Staff from the nine GP practices in Dorchester that make up Mid Dorset PCN - The Atrium Health Centre, Queens Ave Surgery, Fordington Surgery, Prince of Wales Surgery, Poundbury Doctors Surgery, Portesham Surgery, Cerne Abbas Surgery, Puddletown Surgery and Milton Abbas Surgery - have been working hard to deliver the vaccinations.

A spokesman for Dorchester Town Council said: "We'd like to say a big thank you to all the staff and volunteers at The Atrium Health Centre where the vaccine clinics are currently being delivered.

"They are doing a brilliant job and are very reassuring, friendly and professional.

"Thanks also to the wonderful local businesses who have donated hot drink snacks and even flowers.

"This really is our community working together at its best."

The vaccination program is "rapidly progressing" at the medical centre and patients in cohort five - those aged 65 to 69 - are being invited for their vaccinations.

However, the team working at the centre would like to urge people not to attend the vaccination clinic without an appointment after seeing posts on social media encouraging people to visit towards the end of the day to chance getting a 'spare' vaccination dose.

A spokesman for The Atrium Health Centre said: "Whilst we occasionally do have doses 'spare', these are usually because people have not attended for their booked appointment and so are very limited in numbers. We therefore ask that patients do not attend the clinic without a booked appointment as you will be turned away.

"To ensure all doses are used, we have a list of patients who were due to be invited in the next wave of invitations. These patients will receive a call from a member of the vaccination team to invite them in at the end of the day for any additional doses.

"We are also asking that patients who have booked appointments do not arrive before their provided time slot. This slot is 10 minutes in length, meaning you are free to arrive at any point within the 10-minute window.

"Our clinics have been planned to allow for social distancing and efficient crowd management, and attending without an appointment or earlier than your booked slot risks an increase in queues and risks social distancing being difficult to maintain.

"Thank you to the army of volunteers and staff who have so far made these clinics run very smoothly, and allowed us to provide the first vaccine dose to a huge proportion of our population in such a short space of time."

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