Meeting of the Parliament 19 November 2020
Mr Halcro Johnston is very right. My own constituency is largely rural and, for many people, particularly in the most southern and eastern parts of that constituency, local towns are not as accessible as people might think they are.
Discussions are under way in individual health boards about what makes most sense in their areas. How many mobile vaccination units do they need? Where are we using local authority property and facilities—large or small? How are we working with the third sector, and indeed with faith groups, which may also have locations that we can rent and turn into Covid-safe vaccination centres for small numbers of people? All of that consideration is under way.
For some parts of our country, mobile units will be more effective than that. That may be the case in some of our island communities; for other areas, it will be a matter of using local community centres, church halls or other properties, including local authority sport and leisure facilities, which we can access and make use of.
It does not involve GP surgeries so much because, as was covered in Ms Lennon’s question, we want to ensure that they can continue to deliver healthcare. There are possibilities for clustering with some of that.
Every individual health board is in discussions with the national team to consider what they are doing individually and what makes sense, and I can assure the member that I look across all those 14 local plans to ensure that they are as comprehensive and assured as I need them to be.