Staff at vaccination clinics across Greater Manchester will be giving booster jabs on Christmas Day.
Under huge pressure to fulfil Boris Johnson’s target to triple-vaccinate all over-18s amid a 'tidal wave' of Covid sparked by the new Omicron variant, it's all hands on deck across the NHS in Greater Manchester.
And health bosses have confirmed that some sites will plough on with boosters through the holiday, including Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
READ MORE: The clinics where you can walk in and get vaccines and boosters in Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership are still working up a plan for the festive period, and it's understood not all areas will offer boosters on Christmas Day, but they have confirmed there will be jabs taking place in some boroughs on December 25.
Jane Pilkington, director of population health and senior responsible officer for Covid-19 vaccinations in Greater Manchester, told the Manchester Evening News : "There will be a handful of sites open on Christmas Day and Boxing Day but it will be a limited offer on those days.
"On the main, Christmas day will be at community pharmacy sites. We are just still getting a clear picture on this."
Offering a 'massive thank you' to everybody supporting the programme, she added: "All NHS and social care staff, all our colleagues in the wider authority, the voluntary sector. Everbody stepping and redoubling their efforts to get people vaccinated and save lives. It's incredibly important."
Dr Zahid Chauan, a Greater Manchester GP, is this week among those working with colleagues on the logistics of the massive booster effort.
Confirming vaccinations would be taking place in Bury on Christmas Day, he added: “There’s a lot of pressure in terms of what we have to deliver in two weeks.
“People should expect that routine care will stop, while emergencies will still be dealt with, so Covid boosters can be delivered.
“We are asking people for more co-operation and understanding. It’s not that healthcare professionals don’t want to see you, it’s that we have to prioritise boosters to protect and preserve life.”
He added: “Lots of us are having to work Christmas Day. There’s significant pressure on the system at the moment so it’s all hands on deck.
“It’s one of those things, we are privileged to make a difference but we do want to issue a plea for the public to understand and be kind.
“It will be a different Christmas for the NHS and health and social care workers this year.”
Dr Fareeha Saeed is a GP at Failsworth Group Practice.
In Oldham, she said, her practice and six others have carried out nearly 30,000 boosters since October.
She said: “We have no choice really, but we do feel morally obliged as well, the concern is just not having the work force to do it.”
Dr Saeed’s practice is trying to continue with routine work to avoid the huge backlog caused by the hiatus in care at the start of he pandemic.
She added: “We don’t want a repeat of what happened a year ago when people were missed. We are trying to juggle everything.
“Nobody else can do this vaccination programme better than GPs and the Government knows it.”
Dr Saeed and her colleagues in Oldham will take a day off at Christmas but plan to work all the other bank holidays.
“We just have to deliver. It’s a national mandate, we’ve been called to it and we will deliver," she said.
Despite the fighting spirit of Dr Saeed and her colleagues, she also has a warning for the Government - and it’s a refrain they have heard before.
“It’s just so much pressure. I don’t know how GP practices are going to sustain this pressure going forward.
“We need funding, more staff. We are at maximum capacity and we are just managing. If one or two staff go off sick we will be totally off balance.
“I don’t know when we are going to get out of this Covid business.”
