Brighton Centre: Mass Vaccination Venue Until At Least March 2021

Thursday, 3 December 2020 21:52

By Sarah Booker-Lewis, Local Democracy Reporter

Brighton Centre: Mass Vaccinations (Photo: The Voice Of Hassocks / Creative Commons)

The NHS will take over the Brighton Centre until at least next March for mass vaccination.

Leading Brighton and Hove councillors noted the plans without debate at a Policy and Resources Committee meeting on Thursday 3 December.

Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust has a licence to operate a mass vaccination operation for Sussex at the Brighton Centre from 1 December until 31 March 2021, with the option to extend this time.

Executive director for economy, environment and culture Nick Hibberd granted the licence under urgency powers on Friday 27 November after discussions with the trust.

Up to 3,000 people a day, seven days a week, can be treated once vaccines are available.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on Wednesday 2 December.

Further vaccines by Moderna and OxfordAstraZeneca are still in phase three testing.

The report, sent through on the nod, said:

“The city council will support the national vaccination effort.

“It is recognised that this massive public health programme is of critical importance to the health and well-being of Brighton and Hove residents as well as the recovery of the economy.

“The vaccination centre will be the largest in Sussex, used by 3,000 people per day, seven days per week.

“Councillors and officers wish to support this decision and enable the Brighton Centre to accommodate this important work, but given the unusual nature of the request, and its duration, a decision to use urgency powers has been made.”

Care home residents, people over 80, carers and frontline health care and social workers are given priority to receive the vaccine first.

The priority order is:

Residents in care homes for older adults and their carers;
Everyone aged 80 and over and frontline health and social care workers aged 75 and over;
people aged 70 and over and the clinically extremely vulnerable;
people aged 65 and over;
people aged 16-64 with underlying health conditions;
people aged 60 and over;
people aged 55 and over;
people aged 50 and over.

All bookings at the venue are either cancelled or delayed.

The estimated value of the licence up to 31 March 2021 is £740,000 with the potential for extending the arrangement into April/May 2021.

The income will help the council with the ongoing operational costs of maintaining the building.

At the moment, the government is providing a grant to cover 75 per cent of income losses.