Letter: All About the Ins and Outs of Covid Vaccination at the G Live Centre

Published on: 17 Jan, 2021
Updated on: 17 Jan, 2021

From: John Britton

Earlier in the week, my GP’s surgery (Merrow Park) rang me to say I had an appointment to be vaccinated at G Live at 8.18am on Saturday, January 16. I was asked to bring my NHS number and details of my medication.

Came the day, Peter, my son, and I drove through the melting snow. We entered through Dene Road although it is possible to enter the car park from York Road. A sign to the left pointed to the entrance to the centre and one straight ahead led to the car park. A marshal pointed us this way and down in the park another directed us.

Due to it being Saturday, the absence of traffic meant we arrived at 8.00 just as the centre was opening. In we went.

Booking-in involved two stages. The first was a name check and hand sanitisation. The second, another name check and issue of a welcome pack. This consisted of record card with the name of the vaccine – Pfizer in my case – its batch number and today’s date.

There was also a space for the second appointment date. I expect I will be told this by my GP’s surgery. The rest was a leaflet about the vaccine for UK recipients and a guide for older adults. The latter included information about possible side-effects, nothing very serious.

Covid Vaccine – Photo Hakan Nural

The preliminaries completed, I was shown past a waiting-area with about 30 socially distanced seats and ushered into the main area. I didn’t have chance to count the number of stations, each with two chairs, but the highest number I saw was 14.

The nurse then checked my details, asked me if had any allergies or recent vaccinations and asked for my address.

The actual injection was not painful: the needle is very small. I was then labelled with the time of my vaccination (8.15am) and a release time 15 minutes later.

The waiting time was spent in a spacious seated area. Although socially distanced, many of the chairs were in pairs.

When my time was up I joined Peter in his car. We remembered to turn left at the exit (Dene Road is one-way and the sign is directly ahead of you, which is the last direction you look when turning into a road).

After negotiating the tortuous way into York Road (fine view of Richard Greening’s Roman Catholic church) we ended back home by 9.00.

I slept on my vaccinated arm and it felt a little sore and heavy but now at 10am (January 17) it feels fine.

My temperature was 36.6º Centigrade,  slightly higher than usual but still less than the normal of 37º. A slight feverish feeling is apparently not uncommon.

Editor’s note: John Britton was one of over 250,000 vaccinated on Saturday, according to Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive of the NHS.

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