GO AD-FREE. Get 2 Months Digital Subscription for ONLY £1! Use code 2FOR1
GET STARTEDMore on KentOnline
GO AD-FREE. Get 2 Months Digital Subscription for ONLY £1! Use code 2FOR1
GET STARTEDMore on KentOnline
Health chiefs say they are "exploring options" to open more Covid-19 vaccination centres in a district where some residents face a 28-mile round trip for a jab.
At present there is only one centre for coronavirus vaccines for the public in the whole Dover district - which also covers Sandwich, Deal and Walmer - at Dover Health Centre in Maison Dieu Road.
Inoculations began there last Friday as residents continue to voice their concerns.
Tim Preece, 82, of St Andrew’s Road, Deal, who has COPD, arthritis and cancer, said: “When the invitation comes, I believe I shall have to make my way to Dover, negotiate possible Brexit traffic and the one-way system. The thought makes me uncharacteristically nervous.”
He added: “It would be so simple and reassuring to be able to be dealt with here in my home town, to be in limping distance.”
He points out that venues such as the Golf Road community centre have offered their premises for jabs.
James Bird, 81, says the Deal area is being unfairly missed out.
He said: “I’ve had reams and reams of paper from the NHS telling me what I can and cannot do to protect myself, and now I’m in the first round of people ready to be vaccinated I haven’t heard anything!
“Something has happened with the Dover medical centre but what about us in Deal and Walmer?
Peter Davis, of Kingsdown, wrote to Kent and Medway NHS Clinical Commissioning Group explaining that he was in his 80th year, diabetic and shielding his disabled wife.
“The only vaccination centre to be in the small and inaccessible Dover Health Centre, involving travel for the majority of the population requiring treatment. Your decision seems arbitrary and callous without concern for our situation.”
At present the only other vaccination site in the district is Aylesham Health Centre, which is for health and care staff only.
The area’s district councillor, Linda Keen, in a letter to MP Natalie Elphicke said: “It raises questions about access for those many local residents who do not have cars.
"There is no bus directly to Dover from Aylesham and the train is not accessible for people with disabilities. The vaccination organisers need to provide some sort of transport to ensure that everyone can get there.”
Mrs Elphicke explained that the Dover Health Centre site was the best suited to get up and running even though it was not the most convenient for everyone.
She added: “Conversations with the CCG Clinical Commissioning Group, NHS England and local GP practices are ongoing and I am continuing to press for additional sites and extra capacity in our area.”
Clive Tracey, programme lead for Kent’s vaccination programme replied to the parish council: “The CCG acknowledge that the Dover site is some distance for residents in the Aylesham, Deal and Sandwich areas.
"They are exploring options to make the vaccine available more locally in line with a new requirement from government to have sites within 10 miles for everyone.”
Deal town councillor Susan Carlyle will put a resolution to the authority’s remote meeting next Tuesday asking for a centre in the town that would also serve Sandwich and Walmer.
A petition she helped set up has so far raised more than 1,500 signatures.
She and petition co-founder Terry Bishop wrote: “Our population here is big enough to justify a local vaccination centre. We have many vulnerable older people and a journey to Dover adds to their being at risk.”
“The response locally has been totally inadequate and we know of one person aged over 90 who has heard nothing about a jab.
“This week we are told that all over 70s will be inoculated but, as we write this, many will still be expected to cross their fingers and go to Dover using unsafe public transport.”
Other areas of Kent are facing similar problems, with residents on the Hoo Peninsula, near Rochester, also waiting to find out where their nearest centre will be.
It was the last of 42 healthcare zones in the county to have a designated place to go for jabs, although it was hoped one could be set up in Halling - a round trip of 36 miles for those in the most far-flung reaches of the peninsula.
Read more: All the latest news from Deal
