Vaccination site at Casa Hotel now up and running
The first Covid-19 vaccinations at Chesterfield’s Casa Hotel have taken place this morning, with pharmacy-led teams moving to support the rollout across Derbyshire.
The new sites opened today have brought the total number of vaccination venues within the Derby and Derbyshire CCG area to 23, including six pharmacy-led sites, 15 GP-led sites, two hospital hubs and the vaccination centre at Derby Arena.
Casa Hotel in Chesterfield is using two connected function rooms and making good use of the hotel’s ample parking and excellent access. The hotel has the capability to vaccinate over 300 people per day
The site is run by Peak Pharmacy, but Head of Business Transformation Darryl Dethick explained that his team has had lots of help preparing for the start of vaccinations: “We’ve been working hard getting the hotel ready to receive patients, and the hotel staff have been great. Some of the hotel staff will even be helping us with admin on the day; this is a big team effort.
“We will have three vaccination pods and have had really good response from people making bookings. We’ll be vaccinating every day from Thursday through to Sunday to begin with.”
Casa Hotel owner Steve Perez said: “I am absolutely delighted we are able to help – it’s fantastic. It is a great example of hospitality business working with a local company and NHS to serve the community. We are excited to be part of this initiative and do our bit! We are ideally located with plenty of space, a dedicated car park and lots of staff who will be on hand to help with aspects such as marshalling. The more vaccination centres we can have in the region, the better – and the quicker we can get back to living our lives again”
Joe Cattee, director of family-owned Peak Pharmacy said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for community pharmacy to once again show another way in which it supports patients nationwide. As a business we have administered over 30,000 flu vaccinations this winter – as well as supporting patients with other services ranging from travel clinics through to reviews of newly-prescribed medicines. It therefore made sense that we should be actively involved in the national Covid -19 vaccination effort. We are thrilled to be coming together with another family-owned local business to start vaccinating the people of Derbyshire.”
Elsewhere in Derbyshire, St John’s Methodist Church in Allestree and Pinxton Village Hall have also started to administer the Covid-19 vaccine.
Each of the three new sites is led by a local pharmacy team but does not carry out vaccinations in the pharmacy itself. All vaccinations at these new sites require an appointment through the National Booking System.
Peak Pharmacy (PCT Healthcare) and Casa Hotel support the marketing and economic growth of the town through Chesterfield Champions, a network of over 180 organisations across Chesterfield and North Derbyshire.
Joe Cattee, Peak Pharmacy
