Diss residents have to travel more than 20 miles for Covid vaccine

Some residents in the Diss Express area will have to travel more than 20 miles to receive a coronavirus vaccine, it has been revealed.

NHS workers, the elderly and vulnerable people will be tasked with travelling to a community centre in Poringland, after it was chosen as the primary care hub for south Norfolk.

In response to the news, the Corn Hall, in St Nicholas Street, has offered its building to be used as a vaccination hub, sparing people from a potential 80-minute round trip.

Lee Johnson, operations manager at the arts and entertainment venue, said that he had approached South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon about the offer more than a month ago, but is yet to receive a response.

“I really thought there should be one in Diss,” said Mr Johnson.

“I offered the Corn Hall to the Department of Health at the start of December.

“I went through Richard Bacon – his office got back to me and said they would contact the Department of Health, but I haven’t heard anything since.

“The building isn’t being used at the moment, and it won’t be for at least another three months, so we have got the space and we could have a good number of stations here.

“We are quite convenient for people; we’re right in the town centre, we have lots of car parking, or people can just walk up.”

Mr Johnson added that it would be a badge of honour for the Corn Hall to be able to contribute towards the country’s biggest battle since the Second World War.

“I’ve been immensely proud,” he said. “We would be playing our part in the fight against coronavirus, and we will be bringing people back to some sense of normality.

“We want to support the whole wider south Norfolk area and the NHS.”

Surgeries in Diss, Poringland, Harleston, Long Stratton and Attleborough are part of a single primary care network – meaning that they are all lumped together when being considered for certain services.

Residents in Suffolk will likely be asked to travel to Stowmarket for their jab, while another vaccination hub has also been set up in Thetford.

On Monday, the Government announced that almost everybody in England would live within 10 miles of a vaccination facility by the end of January.

Fay Lebon, Clerk at Poringland Parish Council, said that they had “no choice but to say yes”, when they were approached by the NHS to offer their community centre.

“We’re very happy to be hosting this – we’ve never had anything like this at the community centre,” said Mrs Lebon.

“We always made it very clear that the community centre would be available, so when it came up we had no option but to say yes – I couldn’t think of a better use for it.

“We want to do anything we can to help with the vaccine process and to support our NHS and the local community.”

In response to questions about the absence of a vaccination hub in Diss, a spokesman for the NHS Norfolk and Waveney Clinical Commissioning Group promised that there would be a sites for people to get the jab “in every corner of Norfolk and Waveney” within the coming weeks.

He said: “We currently have 11 GP-led sites vaccinating patients against Covid-19, with a further 10 in community centres and GP settings by the end of this week.

“More vaccination centres will open in the coming weeks, with a spread of sites in every corner of Norfolk and Waveney.”

In response to the Corn Hall’s offer of a vaccination site, the spokesman added: “The NHS would like to thank everyone who has offered sites for the vaccination programme, but no further sites are needed.”