Jo Kitching

Please arrive 30 minutes early for your COVID test

We will be assisting the social prescribing team with the administrative side of the vaccination clinics.

Areas of work:

• standing outside welcoming & directing patients to the check in desk (WARM CLOTHES NEEDED)
• helping the waiting area run smoothly - making sure it's first in, first out for vaccinations and that seats are cleaned once vacated
• assisting patients from the church hall to the surgery (short distance across a car park - another outside job, warm clothes required)
• directing patients from the clinic rooms to the post-vaccine waiting area

PPE will be provided if needed. Even the indoor jobs can be a little cold as the doors are open for ventilation so please bring plenty of layers. Tea and coffee is available as well as a supply of biscuits!

All our volunteering will be overseen by social prescribing staff from the You Trust, please report to them if you cannot find your other GoodGym volunteers! (please note Katie will not be present at this clinic)

Four Goodgymers headed to the vaccination clinics on Friday afternoon to take over the afternoon shift from the morning team. At the afternoon shift we had Katie L, Eli, Sarah and Jo. After getting our tests we were allocated to our positions and took over the morning shift.

Katie was in the car park and informing the clinic of any arrivals there. Eli was on front door duty, meeting and greeting the patients coming in. Sarah was temperature checking of the patients and Jo was in the waiting room on the walkie talkie.

It had been a busy morning and it was certainly a busy afternoon where we had a steady stream of patients coming through the door to get their vaccines. We also had a good stream of volunteers too as the waiting room had a good supply of biscuits and chocolates.

Where’s Wilson became a new game where Sarah would disappear somewhere and then would reappear sometimes with cups of tea/coffee and sometimes not. Eli also had a challenge to try and shoe horn a word into the meet and greet with the patients. Katie was the pizza queen when we had a delivery later in the day and she brought these over to the church for the volunteers there. As the day got on we talked to the patients and they soon discovered this was the only place to be on a Friday evening where you could talk and meet other people from other households. We closed the church down about 7:30pm as the remaining patients could go in via the car park and Sarah and Eli managed to take a pizza home that was left over from the days delivery.

I’ll now explain the title. When the patients came in they needed to get their temperature checked, they are informed that this will be taken from their ear. We had a good number of patients who mentioned other areas (below the waist) where they joked they thought it may have been from there. We mentioned this was only after the 6pm watershed as it was still too early in the day for those temperature readings.