University to host COVID-19 vaccination centre
13 Jan 2021
Our University will be supporting the COVID community vaccination programme by hosting a centre at the former Chancellors Hotel site
Our Estates and Facilities teams have been busy since before Christmas carrying out essential compliance and enabling works to the Hotel, which has been closed since December 2019. The teams have worked closely with Manchester Health and Care Commissioning (MHCC) to support the fitting out and setting up of the centre. It is hoped that it will be operational by the end of this week, vaccinating patients registered with local GP practices, starting with patients over 80 and proceeding through the nine cohorts of patients in the national Phase One rollout.
The MHCC has also asked our Estates and Facilities teams to help support setting up three more centres outside of our University in the local communities of Beswick, Chorlton and Blackley. The teams will support these centres to enable them to start their vaccine programmes as soon as possible.
Michelle Harper, Head of Operations for the Faculty Estates Teams, said: “I’m really impressed with how quickly and efficiently our teams have responded to setting up a vaccination centre at our University. We feel very proud that we are able to help with the national effort to get local people, especially the elderly and most vulnerable, vaccinated as soon as possible.
“The feedback I have had from the MHCC has been extremely positive, and they have told me that our support has been invaluable.”
Diana Hampson, Director of Estates, said: “This has been a huge collective effort by our teams to repurpose the former Chancellors Hotel into a vaccination hub. I’m very proud of our staff who have demonstrated, especially since the start of this pandemic, their willingness to adapt with speed and efficiency under such challenging and unique pressures.
“Such is their commitment, we have now been asked to assist with other local community vaccination centres and I’m very pleased that we are able to support the people of Manchester during their greatest need.”
More information:
The vaccination site will be run by the Primary Care Networks for Withington, Fallowfield, Didsbury, Burnage and Chorlton which are both made up of local GP practices. The site will vaccinate patients registered with GP practices in these areas only on an appointment basis starting with patients over 80, and working their way through the nine cohorts of patients in the national Phase One rollout.