Off my chest

I vaccinated 70 people this morning, not at the Mass Vaccination Centre, where I am allowed to look after people but not vaccinate, but as one of six volunteer vaccinators in a large open hall attached to a GP surgery. As it was eight weeks since I last vaccinated anyone I asked the doctor in charge to give me a quick refresher then to observe me. 

She also coached me later on when I needed to take one of my vaccinees to a private room so that she could uncover her arm without being seen by others. I told the GP afterwards that I've been thinking of stopping volunteering because the government has now had seven months to recruit paid staff to the vaccination programme and although I was happy to help get it off the ground in January when NHS staff were abominably stretched, I don't think an organisation that is state-funded should be being subsidised by volunteer labour. She agreed with me in principle but told me that if St John Ambulance were not providing 10 volunteers per shift, the people in this deprived area could not get vaccinations locally. Government funding to GP surgeries for covid vaccinations does not cover the costs of providing them - which is why many GP surgeries are not offering the service.

Wow. I need to rethink. Oxford is stereotyped as a rich and privileged city and parts certainly are, but it also contains severely deprived areas. 29% of children in Oxford live below the poverty line and 10 of Oxford's 83 neighbourhood areas are among the 20% most deprived areas in England. The people living here are those who, twenty times an hour, I needed to welcome and put at their ease as if they were the first people I had spent time and care on all day. Many had limited English and one, with dementia, had none. Some of the people I vaccinated would have made the journey to the mass vaccination centre if they'd needed to - it takes over an hour on two buses - but I'm quite certain that many would not.

I got home absolutely exhausted and fell asleep, thinking of the nurses who do 12-hour, not 4-hour shifts.

Edit: see MariainWales's informed comment below.

Late afternoon in the sun I carried on working on the chest in the garden. It's not as beautiful as I'd hoped under the paint but it's better than it was. Oiled in extras, just before I gave up for the evening.