Southern Health and Social Care Trust looks to ensure Covid jab access for BAME communities

By Adam Morton

The Southern Health and Social Care Trust accepts it has “work to do” to ensure the area’s Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities know how to access the Covid-19 vaccine.

The issue was raised at a meeting of the Trust’s Board by Upper Bann MLA, John O’Dowd.

Speaking at the meeting, the Sinn Fein representative described the vaccine process at Craigavon’s South Lake Leisure Centre as “remarkable” but asked how foreign nationals, who are not registered with a GP, will get access to the vaccine.

“There are many foreign nationals living and working in our community,” said O’Dowd.

“My concern would be about those who are working in the food processing industry and are living in houses of multiple occupancy but are not registered with a GP, how do they access the vaccination programme.”

In response to this question, the Trust’s Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development, Vivienne Toal, confirmed the issue is being taken into consideration and said recipients of the vaccine do not require a medical identifier to book a vaccine slot.

However, anybody attending the vaccination centre must bring evidence of a health and care number (HCN) to be considered eligible for vaccination.

“We are in a situation where you don’t need a HCN (Health and Care Number) to book your vaccination and we are taking all these situations into consideration,” said Toal.

“With regards to people who are new into Northern Ireland and haven’t been registered so far with a GP, they are coming through the system.

“However, we have had discussions in relation to the new entrants service and one of our lead nurses is going to try and do some work with new entrant service to see if we can reach out to those people.

“We recognise there is probably a bit more work that we need to do to make sure those individuals come forward.

“We are also putting out a series of videos on our social media to really try and reach out to the local foreign national population, particularly around the Dungannon area and you will start to see those coming through.

“There is quite a bit of work going on but yes, we realise there is more to do.”

The Trust’s Director of Children and Family services, Paul Morgan, said the Trust are also considering using an app to help spread the message to the BAME community.

“Through the outcomes group, we developed an IT app designed to give good quality information out to a range of BAME communities and we are looking at that within the context of the vaccination,” he said.

“If there are any opportunities to go that route, we will. It is all about encouraging people to take up and adopt the vaccine.”

(Local Democracy Reporting Service)