From Monday 18 September 2023, the below co-hort of patients will be invited by the NHS to book their Autumn/Winter covid booster vaccination.

• Residents in a care home for older adults
• All adults aged 65 years and over by 31/03/24
• Persons aged 6 months to 64 years in a clinical risk group
• Frontline health and social care workers
• Persons aged 12 to 64 years who are household contacts of people with immunosuppression
• Persons aged 16 to 64 years who are carers and staff working in care homes for older adults.

Please note Riverside Medical Practice isn't delivering the vaccination programme and all bookings should be made by calling the National Booking System on 119 or you can book online at www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/covid-19-services/covid-19-vaccination-services/book-covid-19-vaccination

Housebound patients will receive their vaccine offer via a dedicated community outreach team, these teams will liaise with the Medical Practice to help identify them.

Any queries regarding COVID Vaccinations will need to made via calling 119 or by visiting 119 online.

Riverside Medical Practice will not be vaccinating as part of the Winter 22 COVID Vaccination Booster Programme, this is to ensure that we can concentrate on providing our core services and support patients as we move through the winter months.

The local vaccination response will instead be led by the COVID Vaccination Service at Shropshire Community Health and Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin Integrated Care System.

Patients identified as eligible for an additional COVID Booster will be:-

• Patients in Residential care homes
• Frontline health & Social care staff
• All patients aged 50 years and over
• Patients aged 5 to 49 within a clinical at risk group
• Patients aged 5 to 29 who are household contacts of people who are immunocompromised
• Patients aged 16 to 49 who are carers.

Appointments can be booked through the National Booking Service by calling 119.

Invites and eligibility for appointments will be based on priority, therefore from the 5th September patients aged 75 years and over and health & social care workers will be able to book an appointment for the w/c 12th September onwards to have their boosters. National invites via SMS, email and letter are scheduled to be sent.

The National booking service will then extend to people aged 65 years and over, pregnant women, carers and immunocompromised households after that with further information in due course.

Housebound patients will receive their vaccine offer via a dedicated community outreach team, these teams will liaise with the Medical Practice to help identify them.

Any queries regarding COVID Vaccinations will need to made via calling 119 or by visiting 119 online.

For further information please visit https://www.england.nhs.uk/2022/08/nhs-to-roll-out-variant-busting-booster-jab-from-september-ahead-of-winter/ 

From 17 May 2021, people in England who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can demonstrate their vaccination status for international travel. A full course is currently two doses of any approved vaccine. Vaccine status will be available from: 

• the NHS App which you can download from app stores
• the NHS website www.nhs.uk
• 119 - by requesting a paper letter

You will need to register to use the online services, if you have not already. It may take more than a week for your identity to be checked and verified.

If you cannot access the online services, and you have had both doses of the vaccine, you can request a paper letter from the NHS by calling 119. Only call 119 if you are due to travel outside the UK in the near future and have had your second dose more than five working days ago. It may take up to seven working days for the letter to arrive.

This practice is not able to provide you with a letter that shows your COVID-19 vaccination status. Please do not contact the practice about your COVID-19 vaccination status unless you have been advised to by the 119 service.

If you experience any issues with your vaccination not showing online, or indeed you have had a vaccine outside of the UK please also refer these queries to the 119 service as these cannot be dealt with within the surgery.

**We would like to thank all of our patients for their continued support and understanding throughout the pandemic. Please be polite and respectful, we as a team are available and working hard to support you, your family and friend's health and care records**