05 Apr King George Hospital vaccination hub closes after two years and over 138,000 jabs
The vaccination hub, which was opened at King George Hospital in just seven days in January 2021, closed on Sunday 26 March.
It followed the launch of the Queen’s Hospital vaccination hub in December 2020 (which closed in May 2021). Both opened during the second wave of the pandemic when new variants of Covid-19 were causing infections to rise. Collectively, we vaccinated 177,222 staff, colleagues and members of the public at our hubs.
While the time is right due to lessening demand, the team at the hub who have become like a family, are sad to see it go.
Taz Milbank, our senior clinical lead for vaccinations and there from the start, said:
“We are gutted it has closed, the team built such a relationship, however, we didn’t expect it to go on for this long.
“Things were very different when we first opened, we’d have people queueing around the block for their vaccine who would be so grateful they’d be crying. I’m dual trained as a nurse and midwife but I felt a bit useless at the start of the pandemic, this gave me a purpose and I’m so proud of everything we achieved. One of the best things was when lots of our retired nurse came back, with their wealth of knowledge, to help with the vaccine effort.”
Among those nurses was Margo McFarlane, 74, who retired in 2010 but continued to do shifts via our staff bank.
She said: “I couldn’t work on the wards or do anything and I really wanted to contribute. I started doing two days a week in the hub as soon as the Queen’s one opened, moving to King George when it closed. It has been amazing. It’s has been such a fun place to be, with some wonderful people, it hasn’t felt like work.
“When the vaccine came out, everyone was desperate to have it. It was this thing which was going to help us get back to normal life, holidays and seeing family. And it has. My son lives in China and my daughter in America, at Christmas I met my new granddaughter who was born during the pandemic for the first time, she’s two.”
Now Margo, who has four grandchildren, may actually retire properly.
Our vaccination team didn’t just work inside the hub either, they’ve vaccinated vulnerable care home residents, visited schools, vaccinated the housebound and held pop-up sessions in libraries and even a Tesco car park.
They also offered the flu jab and polio and monkey pox vaccines, and carried out special sessions for cancer patients.
A specialist service for children and adults with special needs was even introduced after Taz heard of the plight of Ila, mum to 15-year-old Harley who has autism. Ila had received conflicting advice over where Harley could be vaccinated, and knew it would be a challenge to meet his specific needs.
She said: “From the moment I spoke to Taz everything was brilliant and she couldn’t have done enough. She sorted it that he could come in after opening hours to have his jab with less people around, which was really important.
“She met us and was chatting to him and built up a rapport with him, as did the nurse who gave him his jab. It was the best thing ever for both of us, they made him feel like a star.”
For operational manager Karena Roberts, who usually works in finance, joining our hub was a chance to be a part of history.
She said: “It’s a story to tell the grandchildren, being part of history. I’ve enjoyed it and learned so many new skills.
“I’m sad it’s closed as we’ve become like a family. The staff have been so caring with the patients and it has been heart-warming to see how grateful people have been to have the vaccine.”
Like many members of the vaccine team, Karena will be going back to her former role. Taz, however, is returning to her love of midwifery, on an 18-month secondment with the East of England Maternity Team to look at workforce transformation.
However, the vaccine role wasn’t the only new job the pandemic led to for Taz, she also got a chance to join a band, and was the lead singer of the ‘Pfizer Chiefs’.
