The Grange Practice

The Montefiore Medical Centre, Dumpton Park Drive, Ramsgate, Kent, CT11 8AD

Covid-19 Information

Coronavirus Vaccine

The five Ramsgate practices, Dashwood, East Cliff, The Grange, Newington and Summerhill are working together to deliver the vaccine programme. Between the five practices we care for over 51,000 patients across Ramsgate.

The Montefiore Medical Centre which houses both East Cliff and the Grange practices has been designated as the main vaccine site for Ramsgate although more recently each practice has been making arrangements to vaccinate their own patients.

Patients of Dashwood, East Cliff and Summerhill will be offered a vaccination at East Cliff Surgery or at their own surgery. 

Patients of The Grange and Newington will be offered a vaccination at The Grange Surgery.

Some patients may also have been invited and attended a dedicated vaccine hub.

We are inviting patients based on the national priority list. Please be patient and wait to be contacted by your own surgery about when the vaccine is available for you. (See below). There will be home visits arranged for housebound patients.

Please read the questions and answers below about our local vaccination service. Our phone lines are very busy; please help us to keep lines open for people needing to make appointments for other health matters.

Which priority group are you currently inviting?

As of the 29th March :

Between the 5 practices we have delivered a total of 14,537 doses of vaccine.

We are working through the first 9 groups identified as priority groups and will soon commence vaccinating groups 10 to 12 (18-49 year olds).

For Grange patients we have achieved the following percentages for 1st dose vaccines

1. Residents in a care home for older adults and their carers 100.00%

2. All those 80 years of age and over and frontline health and social care workers 99%

3. All those 75 years of age and over 99%

4. All those 70 years of age and over and clinically extremely vulnerable individuals 96.2%

5. All those 65 years of age and over 96.9%

6. All individuals aged 16 years to 64 years with underlying health conditions which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality 88.4%

7. All those 60 years of age and over 92.3%

8. All those 55 years of age and over 85.7%

9. All those 50 years of age and over 85.3%

If you fall within one of those groups and have not been contacted or you have changed your mind about having the vaccination please contact the surgery you are registered with. 

We have been involved in discussions with other Thanet practices about joining a central vaccine hub in the middle of Thanet. Whilst this remains an option the Ramsgate practices felt on balance it was better to continue to work together to offer patients access to vaccinations locally in Ramsgate. 

You may separately be contacted by NHS England offering the option of travelling even further for a vaccination. We are aware that letters have gone out offering the option of attending a centre in Folkestone and that other centres are being planned in other parts of Kent. In some instances some patients have been invited to attend a centre as far away as Swindon which we understand has been sent out in error. Rest assured we are doing all we can to safely administer as many vaccines locally as we can and to continue to offer you a local option for vaccination.

How are you contacting people to invite them for a vaccine?

We are telephoning patients in the first instance, this allows us to ask some screening questions and explain arrangements at the appointment and answer any questions.

If I cannot attend an appointment what should I do?

If you have received and accepted an invitation for a Covid-19 vaccine we would strongly encourage you to prioritise coming to the appointment. If for unavoidable reasons you cannot make it please call your practice to cancel so that we can invite someone else.

Why is this process so complicated?

Please be assured we are prioritising this programme and committing all available staff to this effort as well as recruiting bank staff and volunteers. All of these staff need to be screened and trained. A significant proportion of staff are working extra hours to ensure this programme runs smoothly.

We are dependent upon vaccine supply. At the moment this is centrally decided and we only receive notification of delivery a few days in advance making it challenging to plan clinics. We administer the vast majority of vaccine stock we receive within two days of them arriving at the surgery. If more stock were available we would increase our efforts to vaccinate more people sooner.

This is not like a flu vaccination programme. There are distinct differences in how the different vaccines are managed and handled.  Typically with flu vaccines we receive prefilled syringes. The Covid Vaccines come in vials and require careful handling and drawing up into syringes meaning the process takes longer.

Additionally with the Pfizer vaccine, patients are required to wait 15 minutes after their vaccination meaning we have a slower flow of patients through the clinics.

All practices remain open and we are having to manage the same daily workload alongside running the vaccination programme.

What is the order of patients you are vaccinating? 

See the priority groups listed above. We are awaiting news on when we can start vaccinating group 10 (40-49 year old), group 11 (30-39 year old) and group 12 (18-29 year old)

We will update this website when we have further news. 

Covid-19 Vaccination

covid-19 vaccinations will be provided through a range of local NHS services. The vaccines will be available to everyone over 18 years old. People will be invited for vaccinations based on a nationally set priority list. The elderly and most at risk from Covid-19 will be vaccinated first.

You do not need to contact the surgery until you receive a letter, text or phone call about getting the Covid-19 vaccine. Our phone lines are very busy and we would appreciate your support to keep phone lines open for people needing to make appointments for other health matters.

The vaccination programme will take several months to work through everyone, so it could be some time before you are contacted.

Please help protect yourself, friends and loved ones by getting vaccinated when you are invited.

Find out more

for more information about the Covid-19 vaccination programme in Kent and Medway please visit: www.kentandmedwayccg.nhs.uk/covid19vaccine

For national information about the vaccine visit: www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/coronavirus-vaccine/ 

Kent and Medway Covid-19 alert level is VERY HIGH (Tier 3)

It is essential that everyone acts to stop the spread of the virus.

Wash your hands, cover your face, ,make space. These are the three most effective ways we can all control the spread of the virus.

Remember if you have any coronavirus symptoms: high temperature, a new continuous cough or a loss or change in your sense of taste or smell, get a free test by calling 119 or book online.

Together, we will control the virus and stop the spread.

Don’t forget, Hands, Face, Space.

Being a tier 3 area means WE MUST:

  • Not mix with other households indoors.
  • only meet people outdoors in open public spaces of up to six.
  • Reduce our number of journeys,avoid travel outside the area unless needed.
  • Work from home if possible.

Full details of all the requirements for Tier 3 are available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/tier-3-very-high-alert