Supporting Doncaster’s school age vaccination programme

Lakeside Village has stepped in to help the local NHS continue to deliver its vital, non-covid vaccination programme in Doncaster.
The centre has offered one of its units for free in order that both adolescent and seasonal flu vaccinations for school age children can continue to take place.
Jan Paine, programme lead from the Vaccination and Immunisation Team at Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust (RDaSH), said: “The school age vaccination programme normally delivers both adolescent vaccinations and seasonal flu vaccinations to school age children in school. However, due to Covid and school closures some children did not receive their due vaccines, so we have been working on catching up these children alongside delivering the current vaccine programmes. As we are unable to access all schools at the moment, we have had to look at doing things differently and as such have been seeking out alternative venues across the area and we are really pleased Lakeside Village have been able to help us.
“We have delivered our last flu catch up session at the centre which went very well, and we will now be looking to organise some sessions to deliver Meningitis ACWY and Diptheria, Tetanus and Polio vaccine which are part of our adolescent programme.
“In order for sessions to take place safely, staff wear the appropriate PPE, and maintain social distancing at all times. Children and parents attend by appointment or time slot and are asked to also maintain social distancing and wear face masks.
“Lakeside Village recognised how important it is for routine vaccination schedules to continue during the pandemic and being aware of school closures they kindly offered us a safe place to use. This means we can continue to deliver routine vaccination programmes to minimise the risk of other disease outbreaks in the future.”
Lyndsey Parry, deputy centre manager at Lakeside Village, said: “Playing a proactive role in our local community is really important to us here at Lakeside Village so we were only too happy to help the NHS by providing a safe venue for their staff to continue with their vital work. The sessions have gone well so far, and we look forward to welcoming the team back again soon.”
School age children due vaccinations will be contacted by either their school or the RDaSH Vaccination Team to arrange to attend a vaccination session.