As the UK’s Coronavirus vaccination programme has started immunising people across the country, more and more vaccination centres are being set up, both large-scale formats in stadiums and events centres and smaller configurations in GP surgeries, health clinics and local pharmacies.
Part of organising and managing a vaccination centre is keeping both healthcare workers and patients safe and socially distanced while queuing for and receiving their injections. Using a combination of social distancing hospital screens and room dividers in waiting areas is an excellent way to maintain a healthy and safe environment while people arrive for their vaccination appointments, but what about inside the clinics where the actual jabs will take place?
Read on for our guide to setting up a safe vaccination site.
The kind of social distancing partitions you’ll need at a vaccination site can be roughly divided into two main categories: medical screens and vaccination pods. Both have an important part to play in providing patients with safety, privacy and confidence when receiving their Coronavirus vaccination.
Medical Screens
We sell a variety of different hospital screens that are designed to help you set up a safe and socially distanced clinical space, whether that’s at a pre-existing medical site or a newly set-up vaccination centre in a community hall or other facility. Smaller venues such as pharmacies or GP’s surgeries which already have vaccination spaces may benefit from investing in individual vaccination medical screens to keep costs down while protecting patients. Made from high-quality Perspex® acrylic, these dividers are designed to form protective shield barriers between patients and staff, allowing vaccinations to take place while preserving proper social distancing measures. The acrylic and aluminium materials used to manufacture these hospital screen room dividers are non-porous and therefore extremely practical for social distancing use; they can be wiped down easily between each patient using antibacterial or diluted bleach solutions to remove any lingering traces of the virus. Mobile, these hospital screens on wheels have lockable castor wheels making them easy to roll around and fix in place exactly where you need them.
Hospital screens such as the GUARDIAN DIGNITY® Medical Privacy Screen and the GUARDIAN Hospital Screen on Casters can be helpful in a wide range of circumstances. As we face the highest pressure on our NHS since the Coronavirus pandemic began, more and more temporary ICU spaces and COVID wards are being set up in medical centres around the country to cope with the additional demand. Dividers such as these with their opaque panels can be used to separate ICU or ward beds, offering patients privacy even in busy locations. In addition, these screens can be linked together to form ‘pods’ which can create individual three-walled ‘rooms’ in busy wards or provide spaces for vaccination programmes.
Vaccination Pods
Where bespoke rooms are not available for vaccination clinics, investing in medical privacy screens from which you can create vaccination pods is an excellent way to keep your staff and patients safe, even when dealing with high volumes. Our vaccination booths are manufactured with an aluminium framework into which slide opaque foam board panels. These partitions offer privacy, ensuring patient dignity while being easy to keep clean and sanitised between injections. These hospital privacy screens and vaccination pods can be scaled up or down depending on your clinic location. The single cubicle has three sides and additional extension pods can easily be added to make as many cubicles as required. For large-scale vaccination programs, such as in military hospitals, NHS hospitals and clinics; multiple booths can be linked together. Smaller clinic set-ups can also be built for pharmacies, doctor surgeries, private clinics and Care Homes.
Our medical vaccination pods are 2.4m x 2.4m and 2m high; this is the standard cubicle size specified by the NHS. However, our manufacturing capabilities allow us to create any size cubicle; so if you are short on space and need different dimensions, our team can work with you to design a bespoke solution. The internal panel surfaces can also be changed if you prefer something different from the standard opaque foam board.
Booth kits are available as freestanding floor screens with solid, sturdy bases for fixed positions - or you can purchase a number of our mobile dignity screens which, thanks to their 360° spinning castor wheels, can be linked together inline or in a concertina fashion to create a flexible vaccination clinic layout that works for your needs. All castor wheels are fitted with lockable brakes meaning they won’t move around once you’ve fixed them in position (until you’re ready to adjust them again).
Whichever screens you choose to create your vaccination site, rest assured that as all of our products are manufactured on-site at our UK factory, quality is assured.
For more information about any of our medical screens or vaccination pods - or if you need advice on how to set up a safe and socially distanced vaccination site - please get in touch via our contact us page or call our expert team on 01733 511030.
FYI: Important Information about the COVID Vaccine
Which COVID vaccines are available in the UK?
There are currently three different vaccines approved for use in the UK:
- Oxford Uni / AstraZeneca
- Pfizer-BioNTec
- Moderna
However, currently only the Oxford/AstraZeneca and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are being distributed for injections.
How many people have already been vaccinated?
As of the 26th January 2021, 6,573,570 people in the UK have already received their Coronavirus vaccine, and this number is growing every day. Decisions have been made to delay the second doses of the vaccine from 3 weeks to 12 weeks to give the NHS a chance to vaccinate as many people as possible with initial doses to help protect the maximum number possible during this dangerous winter season.
What order will the vaccines be distributed in?
The UK Government has laid out a list of 10 priority groups and the order in which these will be processed to receive vaccinations:
- Residents in a care home for older adults and staff working in care homes for older adults
- All those 80 years of age and over and frontline health and social care workers
- All those 75 years of age and over
- All those 70 years of age and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals (not including pregnant women and those under 16 years of age)
- All those 65 years of age and over
- Adults aged 16 to 65 years in an at-risk group
- All those 60 years of age and over
- All those 55 years of age and over
- All those 50 years of age and over
- Rest of the population (to be determined)
At present, the Government aims to have vaccinated everyone in the top 4 priority groups by the middle of February, with the vaccine rollout continuing through the levels throughout spring and into summer.
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