Thousands more Covid vaccinations will be given in Devon from next week, as two large-scale vaccination centres open to patients on Tuesday, January 26.

The Mayflower Grandstand at Plymouth Argyle Football Club's Home Park stadium, and the exhibition and event venue Westpoint Exeter, will be hosting their first booked appointments to people aged 80 and above from that date.

The use of these large sites will increase the vaccination numbers and give local people more options when they receive their invitation for an appointment.

Anyone who cannot or does not want to travel to one of the large sites can be vaccinated by their local GP service. Nobody needs to contact the NHS, as people will be invited when it is their turn, and cannot get vaccinated by just turning up.

Darryn Allcorn, Lead Chief Nurse for Devon and Chief Nurse at Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said: "This is great news for people in Devon. These two new sites will deliver thousands of vaccinations each week and everyone is working tirelessly to get the sites ready. I'd like to thank them for everything they have done and continue to do."

The Home Park site will be managed by University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, which runs the city's Derriford Hospital. Plymouth Argyle FC has been supporting the NHS since the beginning of the pandemic, with the Mayflower Grandstand temporarily hosting health services such as phlebotomy and antenatal services to relieve pressure on Derriford.

Westpoint Exeter will be managed by the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust (RD&E), which runs the city's Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.

Suzanne Tracey, Chief Executive of the RD&E and Northern Devon Healthcare Trust, said: "If you are invited to attend an appointment here, I can reassure you that measures are in place to keep everyone safe, and our brilliant staff and volunteers will look after you while you're with us."

Richard Maunder, Chief Executive at Westpoint Exeter, said: "The Devon County Agricultural Association is delighted to be supporting the national effort whilst also helping our local community."

Large-scale vaccinations 'the way out of lockdown'

Steve Brown, Director of Public Health at Devon County Council, said: "We're very proud to be part of this key project. Vaccination is the way of out lockdown and the pandemic and the new centre in Exeter will give us more capacity to vaccinate local people in the weeks and months to come."

The site was established by the NHS with support from a team of volunteers from Network Rail, whose volunteers also pitched in to help set up the NHS Nightingale Hospital in Exeter last year.

Appointments, which are offered by letter via a nationally-run booking system, are staggered to allow social distancing, and people are urged not to turn up early, to avoid queues.

If anyone invited has received a jab since the letter was sent out or would prefer to wait to be invited to attend a hospital or GP service, they can simply ignore it.

If a patient receives a letter from one of the large vaccination centres, that does not mean they have been taken off their GP list. But if they do get vaccinated at a large centre, they do not need to inform their GP practice.

The Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, which is easier to transport and store, is also enabling GPs to run day clinics at selected individual practice sites across the county, to bring vaccination facilities closer to people in places where the location of the local vaccination centre makes it difficult for people to access it.

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