The seven-day vaccination programme at Sutton town hall which has been a huge success, was temporarily scaled back to allow for vaccines to be diverted to assist other areas.

The vaccination rollout was suspended last Monday, as the vaccine was sent to other centres further behind with vaccinations.

Since opening as a vaccination centre for Sutton Coldfield Group Practice, the site has been open seven-days-a-week and last week started vaccinating over-65s, well ahead of schedule

Birmingham and Solihull Clinical Commissioning Group, which is responsible for organising the Covid vaccine roll out in the area, said people in Sutton Coldfield was ahead other areas.

At the end of last week, Sutton Coldfield Group Practice, said it had vaccinated to 17,842 patients across the town. The include:

• 80 years of age and over
• 75 – 79 year olds
• 70 – 74 year olds OR clinically extremely vulnerable individuals
• Care Homes

If you, or someone you know, fall into one of the above groups and still haven’t heard from from your practice, please make sure your contact details are up to date so they can get in touch. You can easily update your details via your practice website under Reception & Enquiries.

The practice reported that with some support from the Birmingham Community Healthcare Trust (BCHC) staff, it has now vaccinated the majority of our housebound patients. This means they have now protected those most vulnerable within the top four eligible groups across Sutton Coldfield.

There were a few housebound patients that we were unable to get in contact with. If you are housebound and were not vaccinated at home last weekend (6th-7th February) or know someone who wasn’t, please do get in touch with the usual surgery in order for us to record your up to date contact details. We can then arrange for someone to call you to organise a suitable time for us to come and visit you administer your vaccine.

The Government confirmed that everyone in the top four priority groups in the JCVI’s phase one list, more than 15 million people, have been offered the Covid vaccine by February 14 – a day ahead of its target.

Anyone in those top four priority groups can now book an appointment, as can anyone aged over 65, by visiting: https://www.birminghamandsolihullcovidvaccine.nhs.uk/book/ But anyone who is not eligible will be turned away.

Those in the eligible categories can book their Covid vaccination at two mass vaccination centres in Birmingham, at Millennium Point and at Villa Park.