A WEEKEND clinic for 300 elderly patients is being held at the Riverside Medical Practice in Musselburgh in a bid to get the vast majority of over-80s – the first priority group – vaccinated against coronavirus.

They will be invited to attend on Saturday to receive their jabs from GP partner Dr Catherine Cameron, nurses Diane Fyffe, Delia Marriott, Sarah Falconer and Gillian Fulton, and general practice paramedic Tracy Henry.

Almost 50 per cent of the first priority group have been vaccinated already and, while Riverside and other GP practices across the country are still constrained by vaccine supply, the third vaccine allocation sent to Riverside was large enough to warrant a weekend clinic.

Staff will soon start to vaccinate people aged 75-79 and those in the shielding group who are defined on medical grounds as extremely vulnerable from Covid-19.

The practice, based at Musselburgh Primary Care Centre, is the largest in East Lothian and one of the biggest in Scotland, with about 19,000 patients.

Dr Joanna Stenke, GP partner at the Riverside Medical Practice, says most people are delighted to be offered an appointment for a Covid-19 vaccination.

Dr Joanna Stenke, GP partner at the Riverside Medical Practice, says most people are delighted to be offered an appointment for a Covid-19 vaccination.

Dr Joanna Stenke, GP partner, said: “Our dedicated team are delighted to be coming into the practice at the weekend to get as many of the first priority group vaccinated as possible.”

“GPs across Scotland were asked by the Scottish Government to vaccinate registered patients aged 80 and over who can attend the clinic in person and we’re pleased to have been able to vaccinate 300 of this group already at Riverside. Most people have been delighted when we’ve phoned to offer an appointment, and we really enjoy making the call.”

She added: “This weekend clinic will see the majority of our remaining patients aged 80 and over vaccinated, with the remaining few to be vaccinated when we receive our next vaccine allocation.

“We’ll then begin to offer vaccine appointments to registered patients aged 75-79 who can attend the clinic in person along with shielders of all ages. Shielders are defined as those who have already received a shielders letter from the government or their GP.”

Eligible patients will be contacted by phone by the team at Riverside. Patients should wait to be contacted to help the team get the vaccines out to patients as soon as possible.

The next priority group, those aged 70-74 years, will also start to be vaccinated shortly - but this is currently planned to take place in mass vaccination venues and health board clinics rather than in GP surgeries.

Queen Margaret University has been named as a mass vaccination venue.

Local health board teams will vaccinate housebound registered patients and these patients should wait to be contacted by them direct.

For more information about the vaccination programme at Riverside, including which vaccine is being used and a weekly update on numbers vaccinated, visit www.theriversidepractice.co.uk/covid-19-vaccination-underway-at-riverside

Patients are being advised to continue to follow local and national restrictions after receiving the vaccine.

A spokesperson for the East Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership said: “I can say that the vaccination programme in East Lothian is progressing well, in line with the planned national roll-out.”

Dr Richard Fairclough, GP Partner at Riverside Medical Practice, again receiving the vaccine from Lead Nurse Diane Fyffe -.

Dr Richard Fairclough, GP Partner at Riverside Medical Practice, again receiving the vaccine from Lead Nurse Diane Fyffe -.

But East Lothian MSP Iain Gray has described the speed of the Covid-19 vaccine rollout in East Lothian as a whole as “unacceptable”.

READ MORE: Speed of Covid vaccine rollout labelled ‘unacceptable’

The latest figures show that 5,052 people had been vaccinated across the county up to Sunday, January 24 – 5.78 per cent of the county’s population. This placed East Lothian as the third slowest council area in Scotland for vaccines being administered.

John Swinney MSP, Deputy First Minister, insisted this week that the national vaccination programme was on track.

He said: “Good progress has been made on the delivery of the vaccine for over-80s. We have got to 95 per cent of care home residents, who are most at risk of morbidity from Covid.

“We are in a majority now in over-80s and that task will be completed by the end of the first week in February.”