Coronavirus (COVID-19): vaccine deployment plan: update - July 2021

Workforce and facilities

Our workforce

The delivery of the COVID-19 vaccination programme has been a collaborative success, involving Health Boards, NHS Education for Scotland, NHS National Services Scotland, PHS, and wider partners, including the third sector, working together to equip and develop the vaccination workforce. This has been an exemplar of a national effort grounded in community empowerment.

As at 23 July 2021, over 14,000 vaccinators have administered and recorded a COVID-19 vaccination using the national Vaccination Management Tool. This workforce includes vaccinators from a variety of professions, including nurses, dentists, general practitioners, optometrists, pharmacists, allied health professionals, healthcare students, and healthcare support workers. At its peak, more than 700 General Practices were participating in the programme.

Our national Vaccination Management Tool

NHS Education for Scotland in collaboration with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NUS National Services Scotland and PHS, have developed an innovative tool to help ensure the smooth running of the Vaccination Programme.

Turas Vaccination Management is a web-based tool that enables front line health and social care staff to capture and create real-time patient vaccination records, and for information to be shared safely and accurately.

The tool has supported programme delivery by:

• enhancing the safe delivery of the vaccine through providing vaccinators with a real-time digital vaccination history of the person being vaccinated
• reducing administrative requirements and simplifying reporting

The scale of the programme has required a workforce which extends beyond those directly involved in the administration of vaccination, and we are particularly grateful for the contribution volunteers have made. The British Red Cross continues to work with the volunteer, third and community sector via our National Volunteer Coordination Hub, supporting health boards by providing non-clinical personnel to undertake a wide range of activities, augmenting local arrangements between Boards and other volunteer agencies and local authorities.

As of 20 July 2021, the Hub has coordinated volunteers from 17 different organisations to assist in the programme, with more than 65% of volunteers completing more than one session. Since 1 February, there have been more than 4,400 deployments providing in excess of 35,000 hours of volunteering service. 

As restrictions ease and services recover, we recognise there is a need to develop a long-term permanent and sustainable vaccination service workforce. Health boards continue to plan on this basis and have been evaluating new induction programme resources developed by NHS Education for Scotland and PHS, to support newly recruited COVID-19 healthcare support worker vaccinators. It is anticipated these individuals will form a key element of the workforce going forward.

Throughout the programme, we have engaged with health boards to understand the workforce and the pressures placed upon them, including staff wellbeing. We have offered support and direction to support this, including launching a series of posters for use at vaccine centres and on social media to encourage all those getting vaccinated to treat vaccination staff with respect.

Our infrastructure

Health boards have used an array of infrastructure throughout the vaccination programme to ensure they reach all members of society. For example, sport stadiums and conference centres have been used as mass vaccination sites in large cities, general practices and town halls in small community and rural settings, as well as places of worship and universities to reach all members of the community. These locations have been reviewed over the course of the programme and on occasion alternative locations sourced as restrictions lifted and some of these locations started to reopen to the public i.e. sports centres and community halls. Any alternative locations were always selected to ensure ease of access and capacity is maintained for the local population. In locations where it is difficult for individuals to reach a vaccination centre, either outreach teams have gone to them or, for larger numbers, such as seasonal farm workers, transport has been provided to ensure an inclusive vaccination programme.

Mobile and pop-up centres

Our approach to vaccinating has included adapting our engagement and delivery models where necessary.

The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) supported this outreach activity by taking the vaccine out to communities on a specially-adapted bus to deliver COVID-19 vaccinations to residents living in remote or rural areas. More recently, the SAS bus has provided pop-up services within Greater Glasgow and Lothian, visiting sites like shopping centres, bingo halls, football stadiums and busy city centre locations including the Grassmarket in Edinburgh.

Health boards have also vaccinated rough sleepers and people experiencing homelessness who are in emergency and supported accommodation through outreach work, which has included taking mobile units to food banks. This is in partnership with frontline local authority and third sector services. In partnership with community leaders, we have also delivered vaccines at religious sites such as churches, Mosques, Gurdwaras, Gypsy/Travellers sites and fishermen’s missions.

Health boards opened drop-in vaccination clinics for people aged over 40 years. From 5 July all mainland health boards have offered drop-in facilities for all those eligible to receive a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and second doses for those who have waited more than eight weeks since their first dose. In addition, a range of outreach activity, including the SAS mobile capability, has been deployed to support vaccination of younger people, with the focus on locations with high potential uptake and where travel to large centres may be difficult due to cost or time.

Military support

To complement the workforce, when demand has increased at short notice for a limited timeframe, we have worked with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) through a Military Aid to Civil Authorities Agreement (MACA) to deploy military vaccinator and planning teams, like other parts of the UK. These teams have integrated with Health Boards to boost productivity and capitalise on opportunities to push the programme forwards. NHS Scotland and MoD colleagues have worked together seamlessly, delivering accelerated vaccination throughput beyond set targets when required, and developing and sharing best practice to increase efficiencies. The military are always an option for enhanced capability in times of national crisis when all other options have been exhausted.