Community buses ready

I am working with Rye Medical Centre (RMC) , Ferry Road Health Centre and Northiam Surgery to ensure people get to have their Covid vaccination jabs at Etchingham, if they do not have transport or offers of help; the surgeries have been allocated slots for booking appointments and will notify their patients of the appointment time.

But bear in mind that the RMC is trying to get 80 people per day, Ferry Road 40 plus and Northiam 50 plus and this is running from Wednesdays, starting January 20, through to and including Sundays.

I have asked the surgery staff to enquire as to whether patients are able to get to Etchingham and, if not, to give them our phone number (01797 227722) to ring to arrange their transport, emphasising that there is no charge involved. When this was written on Tuesday I had 12 needing help for Wednesday, five for Thursday, three for Friday, and one for Saturday.

And later today (Tuesday) I will be re-contacting all those for Wednesday, letting them know when they will be picked up. I have upped the maximum numbers per bus whilst still maintaining good distancing, and we will be running three and sometimes four buses doing shuttles to get everyone there and back.

It is helpful that vaccination slots for the three surgeries are between 1:30pm and 5:30pm-ish so we have a pretty intense five or six hours, but can then regroup.

Image Credits: Rye and District Community Transport .