coronavirus chesterfield

Chatsworth supplies hundreds of ready meals to the vaccination frontline

Chefs at the Chatsworth Estate have begun creating ready meals for distribution to Covid vaccination centres across Derbyshire, with hundreds of meals being delivered to frontline workers every week.

Hot food for hard working volunteers and staff includes Chatsworth favourites such as lasagne, macaroni cheese, cottage pie made with local beef, and mushroom and leek risotto among others.

Instead of preparing meals for visitors to Chatsworth, for the past few weeks chefs in the Carriage House Café kitchen have been cooking ready meals to provide vaccination staff working long hours with fuel for the fight against Covid. Chatsworth’s delivery drivers have been dropping off meals at destinations including Chesterfield Royal, St. Oswald’s in Ashbourne, Royal Derby and others among the county’s 24 vaccination centres.

Derbyshire has shown that it is leading the nation’s vaccination roll-out – in one week recently, the country vaccinated the second highest proportion of eligible residents in the whole of England.

Chris Baily Jones, Head of Catering at Chatsworth: “The vaccination drive in Derbyshire and elsewhere is absolutely vital in making us all safe for a way out of lockdown. We’re determined to do our bit to support Derbyshire NHS and all the people working such long hours to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible.”

Ready meals for Derbyshire vaccination centres has been made possible with funding from Chatsworth Estate alongside personal contributions from a number of individuals at Chatsworth. The Devonshire Group community forum, which includes Chatsworth, is chaired by Lord Burlington, son of the Duke of Devonshire, and was set up at the start of the Covid pandemic to reach out and support local communities.

A large number of charitable organisations are supported by the Devonshire Group through donations of money, items and complimentary tickets, and by offering savings on commercial rates. In 2019, charitable giving across the Devonshire Group amounted to £334,452.

For more information on Chatsworth and the community, visit https://www.chatsworth.org/about-chatsworth/our-shared-future/

Chatsworth supports the marketing and economic growth of the town through  Chesterfield Champions, a network of over 180 organisations across Chesterfield and North Derbyshire.

Images supplied by the Chatsworth House Trust

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Derbyshire among best in England for vaccinating people over 70

Vaccination teams across Joined Up Care Derbyshire have reached a greater percentage of over-70s patients than almost any other area in the country, ahead of the national target of vaccinating everyone aged over 70 by February 15.

Official figures up to February 7 showed 92.5% of people aged over 70 had received a vaccination, which was the top performance for any system across the Midlands and the second best in England. Only Somerset, with 93.5%, performed better.

The results have been driven by the hard work by teams working across a range of different vaccination services, from those led GP practices and pharmacies to the large vaccination centre at Derby Arena.

A spokesperson for the Joined Up Care Derbyshire said it was a wonderful achievement, but remained focused on the work still to be done: “The government set an ambitious target to vaccinate patients over 70 by February 15, and today we can take a moment to reflect on some real success. Vaccination teams, as well as the hundreds of support staff and volunteers, have worked hard to reach so many people.

“These dedicated people prepared and delivered a world class vaccination programme that is delivering tangible results for people all across Derbyshire. Everyone involved should be proud of this achievement.

“We now have to continue this excellent work, ensuring we reach out to the next cohorts of patients and, most importantly, that we deliver its benefits to everyone as equally as possible.”

Letters have been sent from the National Booking System to people who are aged between 65 and 69 years old, or who are listed by their GP as being at risk. GP practices are also now contacting patients in these groups.

If you are in either of these groups, please be patient and wait for your appointment. If you are aged over 70 but have not yet been vaccinated, please contact your GP practice.

 

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Vaccination hub at Chesterfield Royal Hospital reaches key milestone

The team running the COVID-19 vaccination hub at Chesterfield Royal Hospital has plenty to celebrate – reaching a major milestone since they opened the doors.

Matron Gemma Cort gave the first vaccination on Tuesday, December 8 2020 to colleague Ian Hazel, Director of IT and Infrastructure at DSFS. Ian has been shielding throughout the pandemic – as a failed kidney transplant and subsequent haemo-dialysis makes him extremely vulnerable to COVID-19.

Yesterday (Tuesday, 26th January) it was the turn of Matron Stacey Burton to mark the moment – when she was called upon to deliver the 10,000th ‘jab’ to Amy Chapman from the Community Nursing Team at Alfreton Primary Care.

It means the Royal – one of the first 50 hospital vaccination hubs in the country – has given the Pfizer vaccine to around 4300 of #TeamCRH (over 90%), as well as to colleagues from other local NHS organisations, care and residential homes, and some of its most vulnerable out-patients.

These were priority groups for the first phase of the national vaccination programme, which has now moved progressively out into the community, helping even more people to access the vaccine at a local centre, closer to home.

Commenting on the team’s achievement, Chief Nurse, Krishna Kallianpur said: “I am incredibly proud of them all. They came together at short notice to create a well-organised system, working outside of their ‘normal’ duties to support the vaccination programme.

“It’s been incredible to be involved right from the start. Achieving 10,000 vaccines in just seven weeks is phenomenal and we are looking forward to supporting the next stage in the country’s biggest-ever mass vaccination programme.”

The Royal is to take a step-back for the next few weeks, to enable the community vaccination programme across Derbyshire to become the main point of access. The hub will temporarily suspend its services at the end of this week; and will pick back-up in around four weeks-time, when second doses will need to be administered.

“It will allow staff working out of the vaccination hub to return to their substantive medical, nursing, pharmacy and administrative roles, supporting other areas of the hospital at this critical time.

“This short pause in vaccinating will help the rest of the hospital,” continued Krishna. “Right now we are balancing the demands of caring for over 180 patients with COVID-19, with equally high numbers of the ‘normal’ medical and surgical admissions we see at this time of year.

“Our vaccination team will return to their roles for a while to support areas of greatest need, returning in a few weeks to do it all again when we’ll start to give people the much-awaited second dose. In the meantime we’ll be linking in with our health system partners to ensure that appointments for NHS and social care staff will continue to be prioritised at other centres, including the Winding Wheel in Chesterfield town centre.”

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Staff from Ashgate Hospicecare join vaccine rollout

Retail staff who are furloughed due to Ashgate Hospicecare’s charity shops being closed in lockdown have stepped forward to support the NHS with the vaccine rollout in North Derbyshire.

The partnership comes after the charity had  called on its staff and volunteers to come forward to help protect the local community and save lives.

Staff who volunteer will be assisting at the vaccination centres, ensuring smooth arrival onsite of those coming for vaccination, efficient patient flow to the clinical assessment and overall onsite safety and security.

Some 76 Ashgate Hospicecare staff are currently on furlough, and the charity said that they had the ideal skills to help with the rollout efforts.

Barbara-Anne, Chief Executive at Ashgate Hospicecare, confirmed that staff had begun volunteering at the Winding Wheel in Chesterfield and that the charity had received huge interest from furloughed employees.

She said: “We are incredibly proud that staff from Ashgate Hospicecare are volunteering their time to be at the forefront of the fight against this dreadful virus. They have helped to ensure that the sites are safe and that as many people as possible are able to receive the jab.

“They are making a real difference to the national effort to get as many people vaccinated as possible. Not only are they supporting members of the local community, but they are there to support our own frontline workers to receive their vaccine.

“How wonderful that our team can come together, supporting each other and the wider community.”

Paul Street, 60, is a driver for Ashgate’s Furniture shop at Hasland and was one of the first to volunteer. Last week he began supporting the vaccinations at the Winding Wheel.

Paul said: “Putting myself forward as a volunteer was an easy decision because I wanted to give something back and help get the world back to normal. We are living through a global crisis and it will take the actions of a lot of people to stop the spread of COVID-19, and we need
that to happen sooner rather than later.

“It is incredibly rewarding volunteering at the vaccination centre, supporting people to overcome the fear of needles or the vaccine itself. The best part is seeing those same people come out relieved and happy, realising there wasn’t anything to be afraid of.

“At the end of the day, I’d rather be out there doing something to help rather than sat at home doing nothing, it’s a great feeling knowing that you are there to put people’s minds at rest as they walk in and direct them to where they need to go.

“It means a lot to me that I am helping make a difference in stopping this virus.”

Last week the charity announced that it was supporting its NHS colleagues by deploying all available nursing staff to its inpatient unit in order to relieve pressure at the nearby Chesterfield Royal Hospital.

Hayley Wardle, Director of Patient Care at Ashgate Hospicecare, said: “It’s really important that we do everything we can to support our colleagues during this time of national crisis. Our staff on the frontline are helping to keep people out of hospital, whether that is providing
care on the ward or in a patient’s own home.

“It is heartening to see so many staff from right across Ashgate Hospicecare coming together to help stop the spread of COVID-19.”

To date, the pandemic has already cost the charity £2.4 million in lost revenue with the current lockdown expected to cost an additional £350,000 in lost sales. To support Ashgate Hospicecare’s fight against COVID-19, go to: https://www.ashgatehospicecare.org.uk/winter-crisis-appeal/

Ashgate Hospicecare supports the marketing and economic growth of the town through Chesterfield Champions, a network of over 180 organisations across Chesterfield and North Derbyshire.

 

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Chesterfield Champions work together in offering support to local vaccine rollout

Two Chesterfield businesses are working in tandem as part of efforts to speed-up the covid-19 vaccine rollout across Chesterfield.

Casa Hotel has been working closely with PCT Healthcare, the parent company to get the green light from the government and NHS England to vaccinate residents at Casa Hotel.

Casa Hotel owner, Steve Perez announced on his official Twitter account on Monday, 18th January that Casa has been given the go-ahead to become a vaccination centre from 1st February until the end of June.

Darryl Dethick, head of business transformation at PCT Healthcare said: “We’re delighted to be working with the team at the Casa hotel in Chesterfield along with the team at NHS England to get our Covid vaccination site up and running as soon as possible.  It’s great to be able to work together and support each other in helping to protect our local community.

“Community Pharmacy is really well placed to help look after the health needs of the local population and our Pharmacists and teams are really excited about being able to be part of the national vaccination campaign.”

Joe Cattee, PCT Healthcare director

Casa Hotel owner, Steve Perez said: We have a big car park, lots of space and being a modern building. We are very accessible, including toilets which is very important to the elderly. Instead of waiting in line on a cold pavement, waiting before and after the vaccination can be done in the warmth, under cover.

“We are used to being a 24 hour operation so that poses no issues to us.  We have the resources between us. We have come together as Chesterfield Champions with very different businesses for the benefit of the town.”

The collaboration comes as Chesterfield Borough Council recently announced vaccines are beginning to take place at Chesterfield’s Winding Wheel, along with several other venues across Derbyshire.

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.

steve perez honorary degree

Casa Hotel owner, Steve Perez

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