The four NHS Primary Care Networks (PCNs) in North Tyneside, representing all local GP Practices in the borough and the North Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), announced on Tuesday (23rd February) that they were prioritising ALL adult patients with learning disabilities for COVID vaccination, after fresh evidence showed that disabled patients were at much higher risk from the disease.

GPs will be contacting these patients in the coming weeks to book into our local GP-led vaccination services across North Tyneside, as vaccine supplies allow for clinics to be held across the borough. We would ask that anyone with a learning disability or their carers do not contact their GP at this time; we are making good progress and will be in touch soon.

GPs from all four Primary Care Networks (PCNs) agreed that they would include all adults on the Learning Disability Register in Priority Group 6.  They run the three local GP-led vaccination sites across the borough in Longbenton, North Shields and Wallsend.  All sites have been working with community partners such as Learning Disability North East, to provide accessible clinics and environments for residents and their carers who might find the experience of vaccination stressful or challenging because of a learning disability or underlying health condition.

Our teams of NHS staff and volunteers will always do their utmost to try and accommodate different individual needs at all of our local GP-led vaccination services. All of our sites are accessible and have clinical support on hand for those in our communities, and their carers, that may need any extra help on the day.

Residents are advised that if they do need additional support, to let someone know when their arrive at the site. It may not be possible to vaccinate members of the same household at the same time, however our teams will always try and make the process of vaccination as smooth as possible.

We are now discussing with our community partners about the best process to ensure that all people with Learning Disabilities are included on the GP Learning Disability Register.

More information is available here:

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