A COMMUNITY centre in Ross-on-Wye will be turned into a coronavirus vaccination hub for people living in the south of Herefordshire, a parish council has said.

Primary care networks (PCN), which are groups of GP surgeries in local areas, are forging ahead with plans to start rolling out the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in Herefordshire.

Of the five PCNs in Herefordshire, two have already confirmed they will be vaccinating people this week.

In the east Herefordshire PCN, vaccinations will start on Tuesday at the Ledbury Community Hall.

In north and west Herefordshire, a Leominster GP said doses of the vaccine would be arriving on Monday ready for people to be vaccinated at Bridge Street Sports Centre.

But now, Fownhope Parish Council has shared an update from the village's medical centre confirming that patients will be vaccinated at the Larruperz Centre in Ross-on-Wye.

Fownhope Medical Centre, as reported by the parish council, said: "At the time of writing, we are in the process of setting up the rollout of the local Covid vaccination programme with our colleagues at the GP surgeries across south and west Herefordshire.

"As you will have heard in the media, the Pfizer vaccine requires special storage conditions that make it impractical to deliver from individual GP surgeries. So we will be joining our colleagues to run a central hub for the area from the Larruperz Centre in Ross.

"The rollout will follow the schedule as laid out by NHS England. While the details may change in the coming days, we expect it to follow along the lines of age and clinical need and we will contact all of our patients as and when they become eligible for the vaccine.

"We realise that many of you will be anxious about when you’ll be able to receive the vaccine and I would encourage you to keep an eye on our website where we will post all the latest information."

CORONAVIRUS LATEST:

But the surgery is expected to have fewer appointments available due to the need for GPs to be at the vaccination hub.

NHS documents reveal that at least one GP will need to be at the vaccination clinic at all times.

"Because of the need to deploy our wonderful GPs and nurses to help staff the Covid vaccine hub, our appointment capacity will be reduced across the coming months," the surgery added.

"We will be doing everything we can to ensure that you can access appointments as and when you need them, but please be patient with our reception team if the days and times you would prefer aren’t available."

It is not yet known when the vaccinations in the south of the county will start, but patients will be contacted when it's their turn.

Details of the coronavirus vaccination programme in the county, being spearheaded locally by the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Group, are still being finalised.

It is not yet known when or where vaccinations will start in Hereford or the south of the county.

A spokesperson said: "This is a rolling programme and more hospital sites will be named in the coming days, as well as local vaccine services delivered by primary care networks and pharmacies, and vaccination centres."

People must have two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, at least 21 days apart, for immunity.

The NHS is vaccinating frontline health workers and people over 85 first.