Wandsworth MP Fleur Anderson earlier this week questioned the vaccine minister over why Roehampton doesn’t have its own COVID-19 vaccine centre yet.
No decision has yet been made on the vaccine centre which has been planned at Queen Mary’s Hospital but doesn’t have a start date, and a community-based vaccine drive is also being called for.
Roehampton residents are currently being vaccinated at a vaccine centre in Putney, despite it being an area of high need.
Anderson said: “I’m really frustrated about this and that’s why I took it to the minister in the debate on Tuesday in the Commons.
“Minister for COVID vaccine development Nadhim Zahawi said he was going to look into it, I’ve been asking about this for several weeks now and I’ve been asking the head of the clinical commissioning group Mark Creelman.”
The South West London clinical commissioning group said details on the planned site would soon be available once a start date is confirmed.
Anderson said: “There is one in Southfields, one in Putney in a scout hut just off the high street which has not been open for three weeks, and that’s a very big concern.
“It is called the Putney and Roehampton centre but it’s not in Roehampton and there’s real difficulty getting there from Roehampton. There’s a lot of transport issues, it’s just difficult to do, we want easier access to the vaccine in Roehampton.”
Only 26% of the population of Anderson’s constituency have received their first doses, compared to 50% in other parts of the country.
She added: “It’s really important to have a long-term centre, even if they open the large vaccine centre in Queen Mary’s Hospital.
“The theory behind the large centres is there’ll be where 18-50-year-olds go for jabs, but we still need somewhere for people getting second doses.
“We need one in the community in Roehampton. With the NHS assisting pharmacies who have been asked to help and GP practices, they want to support a vaccine centre in the community.”
Photo credit: United Hospitals via Wikimedia Commons
