The Covid 19 pandemic has dramatically changed how all our health services are delivered. The need for social distancing, the need to ensure fresh air and ventilation, and the need to avoid crowding waiting rooms – as well as the expected higher uptake – mean that designing a mass flu vaccination clinic this year has needed a big change to how we do things.

The absolute priority must be safety for both patients and staff, but we also need to make it as efficient as possible so that we can get as many people protected from flu as quickly as we can.

We have therefore planned for two full days of flu vaccination, on Saturday 17th and Saturday 24th of October, on Marlborough College’s Parade Ground and Water Meadows. We will be using a marquee which can be opened to the elements (as much as the weather allows!) and which will allow socially distanced queues too.

We are very grateful for the support of Marlborough College in this – the site they have generously let us use will allow large numbers to be vaccinated whilst queuing safely and will allow parking without huge traffic issues. We could find nowhere else that offered this while also allowing large numbers of our registered patients to walk to the site.

Please do not come to either day unless you have received an invitation, and note that to ensure that we do not run out of stock we will not be offering flu jabs in the surgery in advance of the clinic dates.

More information will be issued shortly on our website and Facebook page – and invitations to eligible patients will soon be sent out soon.

Flu 2020 FAQs

Please view our Flu 2020 FAQs news item for information on this year’s flu vaccination programme.

A Statement From The Partners Of Kennet and Avon Medical Partnership

It has become apparent that over recent days there have been an increasing number of complaints and negative comments made on Pewsey Noticeboard and other social media sites about this year’s ‘flu immunisation programme. Much of what has been said has been based on a number of misunderstandings about the obligations of the Practice, and on a failure to consider the full implications for both patients and practice staff of simply repeating the system we have used in previous years. We have already tried to explain why we have decided to implement these plans, both directly to the PPG and with a detailed list of FAQs on our website, but it would seem that it is not yet clear to many patients.

Therefore we will aim to address some key points below regarding ‘flu immunisations, particularly during the challenging conditions this year.

Most importantly of all, please remember that decisions about how we run the ‘flu immunisations are made by the partners of Kennet and Avon Medical Partnership. They are NOT made by the staff, or by the Practice Manager (who is an employee of the partners). While we understand that not everyone is happy with the plans we have made, we will not tolerate any abuse of any of our staff, verbal or physical, for any reason.

Please view our statement from the partners of Kennet and Avon Medical Partnership Letter for more information about the flu immunisation programme and why it is so different this year.