Vulnerable residents in a rural Aberdeenshire community will be faced with 40-mile journeys on “treacherous” wintry roads next week in order to get their jabs after plans to host a vaccination centre in Alford were scrapped.
Last month, NHS Grampian and the Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership (AHSCP) confirmed they would be operating immunisation centres in Macduff, Fraserburgh, Peterhead, Ellon, Inverurie, Huntly, Alford, Banchory and Stonehaven as parts of the campaign to vaccinate Aberdeenshire.
At the time, the interim chief officer of the AHSCP said the locations of the venues were selected “to, as far as possible, ensure that every clinic will be within a roughly 10-mile drive”.
But this week, the health board announced the Alford and Ellon clinics won’t be used in the next phase of the programme of vaccinations.
The decision has been taken in order to concentrate staff and vaccine supply in fewer sites, with the aim of accelerating the number of jabs being administered.
From next week, patients in both communities will begin receiving appointments at alternative venues.
Residents of the Ellon area will now need to make the 20-mile journey to the P&J Live vaccination centre in Aberdeen and those from Alford will be asked to go 20 miles north to Huntly for their injections.
During yesterday’s NHS Grampian board meeting, it was confirmed the changes in Alford and Ellon were agreed after the health board was told in late January to up its pace from 25,000 vaccines a week to 40,000.
NHS Grampian is currently preparing its jab roll-out for upcoming groups prioritised for vaccination – all those over the age of 65, and those under 65 with underlying health conditions.
Alford councillor Robbie Withey said he has had a great deal of vulnerable residents voicing concerns over the prospect of making the journey to Huntly for their jabs via twisty rural roads in the ongoing snowy weather.
Mr Withey said: “Some residents find it hard enough to travel into Alford from the outskirts of the village.
“Asking vulnerable people to make an hour-long round trip in winter is ludicrous.
“Public transport between Alford and Huntly is poor and the road is treacherous when it snows.”
He added: “In an ideal situation I’d like to see us reverting back to actually having a centre in Alford.
“But if that can’t be done because of resources and what-not, can we at least get something here temporarily to see us through the bad weather so that people don’t have to make the journey in terrible conditions.”
Donside community council chairwoman Nicola Sedgwick is also concerned and said: “For the people concerned, they won’t want to travel out in these conditions.
“And they may not have their own transport, so they’d maybe be relying on other people to get there.”
She added: “We’ve been encouraged to stay within our communities and shop local, yet now we’re asking these people to travel out of their comfort zone.
“The concern of the travel, plus the fact they’re going in from a health risk point of view to a different area, is quite worrying.”
The Alford clinic will run on Saturday for 75 to 79-year-olds who got their appointment letter last week, but from Monday, all will be asked to attend the Huntly clinic.
A spokeswoman for the AHSCP said: “The decision to close the outreach vaccination clinics at Ellon and Alford was not taken lightly.
“We have a small and precious staffing resource across Aberdeenshire and we need to deploy them to where they can vaccinate the most amount of people in the shortest amount of time.
“We appreciate the strain this may put on vulnerable members of our rural communities however, and we will assist people to attend as best we can.
“Furthermore, we are working to recruit volunteer drivers who will be able to help.
“In the meantime we would ask anyone who has a car to consider giving their friend or family member a lift to their appointment.
“Car sharing, when done safely, is permissible for essential journeys such as this.”
At her briefing, First Minister acknowledged there would have to be compromise between local accessibility to vaccine sites and prioritising staff at mass centres.
“Those trade offs between scale and local access are unavoidable, I’m afraid,” Ms Sturgeon said.
“We have to find the best balance.
“Is it ever going to be perfect, are we going to get it 100% right? There will be people who don’t want to travel, who want to get vaccinated closer to home. It has to be as flexible as possible.
“But if we want, as we do, to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible then these bigger vaccination centres are a critical part of doing this and I am afraid that is just the reality of the situation.”
