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Adams Park Covid-19 Vaccination Centre

My wife and I had our first Covid jab this afternoon. Didn’t feel a thing and, so far, no ill effects.

But what prompted me to start a thread was simply to say what an impressive set-up it is and how brilliantly organised and slick the whole process was. There was a more or less unbroken line of cars entering the car park. On the right hand side abutting the grass bank is an open-ended marquee/tunnel, about 30’ high, 40’ wide and approaching 70 yards long. All guesswork but designed to give an idea of the magnitude (which came as a great surprise). Stewards directed us through this “tunnel” and round to the left towards parking spaces.

Having parked and donned masks, we joined a short queue (about a dozen other people) to go into the Caledonian Suite where we had our hands sprayed with sanitizer and were checked in before being directed to a waiting area with seats numbered 1-12 corresponding to the numbers on 12 alcove cubicles.

All very impressive and the whole process from arrival in the car park to departure took around 25 minutes.
All the stewards, volunteers and NHS staff were very helpful and efficient.

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Comments

  • Sounds like a mirror of where I am volunteering at the Wycombe Town Hall. I spend 10 hours a day on my feet out the front in the cold, "filtering" people. Trying to sort out those who need to be in there and those who want to wait in the warm, rather than either wait outside or go into town to grab a coffee. Around 50 NHS staff, administrators from Drs surgery's from the area & volunteers, 10 solid hours to inject 400 + people a day. On the whole a rewarding experience, find it tough at times when I'm getting abuse from a very few who complain that they a) can't park right out the front b) there are no free disabled spaces and the 2 that are there are occupied c) Don't want to wear a mask or claim they can't wear a mask, that is until I tell them it's about protecting the staff & they have a choice, no entry & the jab will be given to a local front line worker such as one of the police officers or firemen as good as adjacent to the building d) have to pay for parking in The Swan car park or council offices! FFS, your getting a jab for free & all the organisation for free as well. I'm bloody knackered by the end of the day & can barely walk, but the vast majority are very grateful & pleasant. Some local charities & shops, (predominantly of Asian origin), bring us some hot snacks too, which is amazing & restores the faith in mankind! Remember, we are all under pressure so try not to take it out on your staff at the vaccine centre.
    If you are stuck for something to do & would like to get out call your local GP surgery or travel to a vaccine hub and offer to volunteer even if you can only help half a day. You can choose to stay indoors and help. I only do the outside work as I am amongst the "spring chickens" and can cope.

  • That’s a prodigious effort on your part @EwanHoosaami. Very contrasting locations of course and parking, a doddle at AP, was always going to be an issue at the Town Hall. Substantially larger numbers of course - close to a thousand vaccines (700-800 at AP based on 6 per hour average x 12 “cubicles” x 10 hours).

  • @EwanHoosaami said:
    Sounds like a mirror of where I am volunteering at the Wycombe Town Hall. I spend 10 hours a day on my feet out the front in the cold, "filtering" people. Trying to sort out those who need to be in there and those who want to wait in the warm, rather than either wait outside or go into town to grab a coffee. Around 50 NHS staff, administrators from Drs surgery's from the area & volunteers, 10 solid hours to inject 400 + people a day. On the whole a rewarding experience, find it tough at times when I'm getting abuse from a very few who complain that they a) can't park right out the front b) there are no free disabled spaces and the 2 that are there are occupied c) Don't want to wear a mask or claim they can't wear a mask, that is until I tell them it's about protecting the staff & they have a choice, no entry & the jab will be given to a local front line worker such as one of the police officers or firemen as good as adjacent to the building d) have to pay for parking in The Swan car park or council offices! FFS, your getting a jab for free & all the organisation for free as well. I'm bloody knackered by the end of the day & can barely walk, but the vast majority are very grateful & pleasant. Some local charities & shops, (predominantly of Asian origin), bring us some hot snacks too, which is amazing & restores the faith in mankind! Remember, we are all under pressure so try not to take it out on your staff at the vaccine centre.
    If you are stuck for something to do & would like to get out call your local GP surgery or travel to a vaccine hub and offer to volunteer even if you can only help half a day. You can choose to stay indoors and help. I only do the outside work as I am amongst the "spring chickens" and can cope.

    I genuinely applaud your efforts. Great job. It also highlights to me once again how Covid has defined our nation in two categories. Selfless do’ers who do incredible things without a thought and not wanting praise and acknowledgement. And the other category are a right bunch of selfish sh1ts who want life given to them on a plate and whine to the heavens when delivery isn’t made in heart beat.

  • I understand your viewpoint @TheAndyGrahamFanClub, however, I'm sure there is a vast middle category of ordinary folk who don't complain (or volunteer) but just get on with things.

  • I would like to add my thanks and appreciation to EwanHoosami for his selfless efforts, wonderful job he’s doing in what must be very trying circumstances.

  • I agree that the set up at AP is excellent from every point of view. The many volunteers are all pleasant and helpful and those giving the vaccinations are too and know what they are doing. I was rather doubtful that the Town Hall would prove as satisfactory but overall it is a massive job to vaccinate the entire population and these facilities are going to be in use for a long time. We have to be grateful that the operation is in full flow.

  • @ValleyWanderer said:
    I understand your viewpoint @TheAndyGrahamFanClub, however, I'm sure there is a vast middle category of ordinary folk who don't complain (or volunteer) but just get on with things.

    In that respect, I’m sure you’re right.

    More broadly, in terms of people’s behaviour and attitude towards the current critical situation, I don’t think there is a vast middle category. I think the majority of people recognise the gravity of the situation and therefore at least follow the three basic rules to the best of their ability but there is clearly a disturbingly significant minority who dismiss the situation as at best exaggerated or at worst non-existent. Between those two categories there seems to me to be no room for a middle category. No room for agnosticism.

  • I’m not sure I agree with you @micra. I think there is a huge amount of people who fit between the ‘it doesn’t exist’ and ‘have to be diligent’ camps.

    I think in part fatigue, part disillusionment, part confusion but people are amazingly imaginative at interpreting rules and guidance so that in their case they aren’t actually breaking the rules when they clearly are.

  • I really had in mind the split between those who recognise that Covid-19 exists (ie anyone of sound mind to barely sentient) and those who need to return to their own planet.

  • I don’t think there are actually that many of the latter around. But I do think there are a lot of people out there who think that it exists but it’s just like a bad dose of flu and who cares if a few thousand (mostly) old people get culled in the process as long as they can go to their pub/club/mistress/second home unimpeded. A depressingly large number of them in government

  • edited January 2021

    @bookertease said:
    I don’t think there are actually that many of the latter around. But I do think there are a lot of people out there who think that it exists but it’s just like a bad dose of flu and who cares if a few thousand (mostly) old people get culled in the process as long as they can go to their pub/club/mistress/second home unimpeded. A depressingly large number of them in government

    There certainly do seem to be a lot of the latter. Seemingly incapable of understanding that while older people are closer to dying than younger people in general, there's nothing to say they "wouldn't have died anyway" in this period, like they seem to think!

  • @micra said:
    I really had in mind the split between those who recognise that Covid-19 exists (ie anyone of sound mind to barely sentient) and those who need to return to their own planet.

    Whilst I think there might only be a tiny band of nutcases that don’t believe in the virus there is a frightening amount of people that are willing to share and spread elements of mistruths to undermine various elements of our society’s response. A tweet the other day from Matt Hancock had hundreds of responses containing absolute nonsense. This is shared and shared and ends up as fact to some.

  • And there are people who know its dangerous, know what they should be doing, but don't bother doing it and hope no-one notices . There is a word for them.

  • Oh and well done @EwanHoosaami . Aylesbury college and the odeon are just starting to get sorted it seems. Mrs W (ex nurse) and I would both help...but as we are shielding our daughter we cannot be in amongst the people until she has been jabbed.

  • Good work @EwanHoosaami. Sad to see that even people getting early access to their vaccine can find something to moan about.

    Where I live, the local rag was carrying the views of numerous pensioners they’d buttonholed in the high street complaining there was no ‘local hub’ and that they’d had to travel 4 miles ‘at their age’.

    Can’t be that infirm if they can wander about in the high street in the cold, and stand about whining to journalists. One even said he couldn’t see why it wasn’t being done door to door!

    My mum (and ex nurse who is never backwards in claiming standards have slipped since her day) was jabbed at AP this week and was very impressed by the set-up.

  • edited January 2021

    TBF, 99.5% are fine & the majority are amazed at the efficiency of the whole "production line" set up. There is approximately 50 people involved of which about 20 are volunteers, without whom, the operation would be nigh on impossible. Just some who really don't get it, that we can't allow all and sundry in to the building as the risk increases of the spread of the disease. If it gets into the hub, then nobody gets a jab, it really is that simple. We obviously have to allow carers in with those that are vulnerable, have dementia, and translators etc. I am stunned at the amount of people that want to go in, simply because they don't want to wait outside in the cold! At our hub, we are using the Pfiezer vaccine, which requires the recipient to sit & wait for 15 minutes after the jab in case there is any reaction, best to have any repercussions on site where there are medically trained staff than down the Hight St.
    BTW, if you are going to be out front, facing the flack, make sure you hone your psychic skills. Had a row with a dad & daughter that wanted one of them to go in with their wife/mum, but didn't tell me after she had gone through, as it was "too sensitive an issue to let me know in front of her!" How the heck am I supposed to know that? All this on top of an extra 150+ people that we treated yesterday on top of the 400+ as there is forecast snow today & they squeezed in the extra so fewer people had to make the journey, particularly from Stokenchurch and other higher outlying villages. Got home last night and had to lie down as my back & feet were killing me, I could hardly walk.
    On the flip side, saw a few WWFC fans that came through the door past and present that was good to catch up with, as we haven't seen each other for 10 months or so. Up again 06.00 to get the last day in, as there is no more vaccine supply until at least the week after next. Stay safe everyone, wear your masks, keep your distance and hopefully next season we will be in AP cheering on the Blues in the Championship?

  • @EwanHoosaami Good work. My dad (Stokenchurch) was due to have his this morning but was squeezed in yesterday. At the town hall though I believe.

    Weird that I heard about it first on the gasroom though!

  • @EwanHoosaami absolute hero.

  • Good work @EwanHoosaami Concerned to hear you have no vaccine for weeks? I know there are shortages now in Europe but I thought Bozza and Hancock had sorted it all out for Blighty with their amazing political acumen?

    And I am not surprised that with volunteers and dedicated staff the production lines are running at full speed. Pay no heed to the self-centred, the majority thank you for you efforts.

  • @LX1 said:
    @EwanHoosaami Good work. My dad (Stokenchurch) was due to have his this morning but was squeezed in yesterday. At the town hall though I believe.

    Weird that I heard about it first on the gasroom though!

    In that case, @LX1, I was probably his 1st point of contact as it's the Town Hall where I volunteered. Nobody else fancies standing out in the freezing cold "wind tunnel" for upwards of 10 hours!
    Been sent home this morning as I live at the top of the hill in Widmer End and the snow looked pretty horrible. Given, we suspect, that many of those 200 left over for today won't make it, they decided to work with a skeleton staff.

  • I had my Pfizer vaccination at the Town Hall yesterday and it was brilliantly organised, in and out within 30 minutes. We must have met there @EwanHoosami, and I'm guessing that you were either the witty guy outside the entrance ushering us in, or the tall woman, full of banter, making sure that those of us in the 15 minute recuperation seats didn't faint. A fantastic job by all concerned, going the extra mile to support some frail people who were clearly not feeling confident. A massive "well done".

  • Yep, you've nailed it. I was outside trying to keep it lighthearted as I knew there would be many "nervous (victims)/patients". Froze my bits off but used to it at AP! Glad you had a positive experience & with the will of the Gods hope to meet again at AP. I expect I will be "head of security" out front when the next batch of vaccine arrives unless I can find any work again?
    A thanks to all the NHS staff, admins, fellow volunteers and patients that helped us all make the experience as good as we could have hoped.

  • edited January 2021

    Well done for your volunteering @EwanHoosaami

    I suppose the only good thing about vaccine reserves running low right now is it allows the snow to disappear rather than put pressure on people to go out in dangerous conditions.

    I wouldn't fancy driving today for a few miles on the flat, let alone much older people or their carers having to go up and down hills.

  • A wonderful performance by all concerned. Many congratulations to everybody,nurses and stewards. You made my day with your kindness and professionalism

  • I can only say a massive thank you to all the people involved in the vaccine effort and all the nurses doctors and paramedics on the front line in our hospitals. Also the people working in our supermarkets, postmen, delivery drivers etc.

    It will be all too easily forgotten what these brilliant people have sacrificed for us when this horrible situation is eased somewhat.

  • Hear hear to all the words of praise and appreciation above.

    I assume the vaccine programme is still ongoing at AP. The behind closed doors matches last night and this afternoon must surely have had some disrupting effect.

    On a totally unrelated issue, the pitch is starting to cut up a bit - witness the muddy state of most of the Spurs players’ shirts last night - and this afternoon’s game won’t have helped but we have .superb pitch maintenance practitioners in Turftronics.

  • The child (vulnerable) has a jab booked for the Kassam (boo!) this week and in April. Organisation in Aylesbury area seems all over the shop. Mrs W just been asked if she can suggest anyone to set-up the college site...

  • Apropos of nothing and me never having been there or expressed an opinion and Mrs W having no interest in football or it's rivalries, her reaction to her trip with the girl to Oxford for a jab? 'That ground is really crappy...' Aye thank yew.

  • And I’d always assumed Mrs Wendover was very short-sighted....

  • Yeah, she said there was a whole end of the Kassam she couldn't see!

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