Stockport care home residents begin receiving Covid-19 vaccines

Care home residents in Stockport have begun receiving their Covid-19 vaccines following the roll-out of the jabs to healthcare staff and other vulnerable people in the community.

Residents of Brinnington Hall care home, on Middlesex Road, were among the first to be given a dose of the Pfizer/BioNtech immunisation on 30th December. Community vaccination rollout is being managed by Stockport Clinical Commissioning Group, which has had to overcome the transportation and storage challenges for the vials of the Covid-19 vaccine.

Cllr Jude Wells, Stockport Council’s Cabinet Member for Adult Care and Health, said on the day of the first jabs being administered:

It is great news that residents from Brinnington Hall care home will be the first in Stockport to receive the Covid-19 vaccination today. This, along with the vaccination of all staff working in care homes across Stockport, is a significant step forward in our local efforts to ensure that our most vulnerable residents and the staff who support them have the vaccination as early as possible.”

Margaret Harley, 78, (pictured receiving her Covid-19 jab) who has lived at Brinnington Hall for just over a year was the first resident to receive her vaccination. She said:

Everything went smoothly and was very well organised. I feel privileged to be one of the first to have the vaccine and although we have stayed safe at home, I am hopeful that this is the start of the whole world bouncing back from this awful year.”

Rachel McIntosh, Brinnington Hall Home Manager, said:

This year has been a real challenge for everyone but we have always had faith that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and the availability of a vaccine has been our continued hope that we will return to normal. The Registered Nurses who came to complete the vaccinations have been amazing and the process was fast and efficient. We are just so relieved to know that our residents will be protected from this virus, as that has been the most important thing to us throughout.”

Registered Nurse Cecilia Lockwood who administered the first vaccine, said:

I am so proud to be rolling out the first vaccines – it is such an important step so that care home residents are able to see their loved ones again.”

Staff at the care home have already been vaccinated at Stepping Hill Hospital, as they were amongst the first in the country to receive the jab when the largest vaccination programme in NHS history began earlier in December 2020.

Only priority cohorts for vaccination, including frontline healthcare workers, care home residents and staff, over 80s and the extremely clinically vulnerable, a currently being offered the jab, with further groups being invited to come forward throughout 2021 on receipt of a letter either from GPs or the national NHS.