Tuesday, December 14th, 2021 - Booster update

Our teams are really busy pulling together the plan to ensure that all adults in Swansea Bay have had an offer of a booster vaccination by the end of the year.

We’re already increasing the rate at which we issue invitations to attend for vaccination and these additional appointments start from Sunday 19^th December.

However, we’ll also need to increase significantly our current vaccination rate, which is an immense logistical challenge.

And there will be some new vaccination locations which we are currently commissioning to come on line next week.

In the meantime, you can really help us by:

• Attending existing booster appointments on the correct day and at the correct time.
• Not calling our health board booking team, other hospital departments, individuals, switchboards or your GP to ask when your booster is.
• You will be invited when it’s your turn. Unlike England, you cannot book your booster by phone or online in Wales currently. Inquiries about dates for appointments are blocking many people who do have an appointment, but need to reschedule, from getting through. This can lead to wasted appointments.

If you are unable to attend for vaccination at your scheduled appointment you will not be able to receive an alternative appointment until January 2022.

Turning this plan around at such short notice is an enormous ask, but we are working to have everything in place to begin really ramping up our vaccinations within the next few days.

This will mean our mass vaccination centres opening earlier and closing much later in most cases; more than doubling the daily appointments scheduled at the Bay MVC from around 2,000 to more than 4,000; drafting in other health board staff and volunteers and working with local pharmacies to help more deliver boosters.

Much more is going on behind the scenes and we’ll be updating on the booster position through the week as we know more.

Please keep an eye on our social media feeds and our website.