As folk already know, the Kincardine and Mearns vaccination clinic at Stonehaven Town Hall closed at the end of March.
Over the following two weeks – the Easter holidays – vaccination teams held pop-up clinics in various schools, including Portlethen Academy to vaccinate the over 75s with the recommended booster dose.
Now Stonehaven Community Centre will offer appointments two days a week between 9am and 4:30pm.
This gives very limited capacity to offer all the vaccinations, including all adult and childhood immunisations and covid boosters.
The national booking system has been advised of the new clinic, including days and times, and appointments should be bookable next week. There is not yet a confirmed date for when the Stonehaven clinics will be live on the system.
Many over 75s have now received their booster dose, however across Kincardine and Mearns there are still some who have only just become eligible for an appointment (appointments are allocated based on when someone had their last dose).
Where will people be allocated appointments?
For those still due to be allocated an appointment, local teams will be calling them directly to book them into the new Stonehaven clinics. This group will not receive an appointment letter from the national booking system.
For those who have already been sent an appointment at the Banchory Vaccination Clinic – should they wish to re-book into the Stonehaven clinic they should be able to do so from next week via the national booking portal.
For all those under 75 who have yet to get their second or third vaccination – drop-in appointments are no longer offered, and anyone who needs to get a vaccination will need to book an appointment via the national booking system.
Due to the very limited capacity at the Stonehaven clinics all those who are able to travel to Banchory please do so.
Eventually the Invercarron resource centre in Low Wood Road, Stonehaven, will host the Kincardine and Mearns vaccination centre. Work needs to be undertaken to make it ready for business.
National booking portal: https://www.nhsinform.scot/covid-19-vaccine/the-vaccines/coronavirus-covid-19-booster-vaccination/
National booking phoneline: 0800 030 8013
Ian Mollison
Liberal Democrat councillor for North Kincardine 2007-22
For heaven’s sake we’ve been doing this for two years and there’s still humming and heying about where, when, how, who’s eligible. You may get a letter you may not. This sounds like a shambles and needs someone in authority to get it sorted and quickly surely. The original roll-out was excellent but what’s happened now? Has the local elections taken some folk’s eye off the ball?
The local elections should have impact whatsoever on the provision of vaccinations. Health and social care officers are responsible for such provision.
Councillors were involved locally when it came to approving improvements to the Invercarron Resource Centre in Stonehaven to make it fit for purpose. The matter only came before councillors to comply with legal requirements. Unfortunately although the council was legally obliged to approve the proposals, a majority of councillors objected. They were within their rights to do so, but the net effect was that the work got delayed unnecessarily and this resulted in folk getting Banchory appointments. Pointless.