Vaccine staff start to return to 'day-to-day' roles

Many local health staff who helped vaccinate people locally are returning to their day-to-day roles.

Powys Teaching Health Board has said more than 100,000 covid-19 vaccinations have now been administered. And many of the staff redeployed to help will return to their normal jobs as work returns to normal.

"Nothing like this vaccination programme has ever been put together so quickly. Vaccination staff were redeployed from a wide range of roles including School Nurses, Physiotherapists, Continence Nurses, Specialist Nurses and many other roles. And, of course, many other people in the vaccination centres came together from other roles as well," said a board spokepserson.

"The programme relied on huge amounts of goodwill and many staff being redeployed from other areas. Now that we have settled into a more routine way of working, and other areas of work are becoming busier again, new vaccinators have been recruited and those redeployed staff are returning to their original jobs."

Caroline Griffiths is a Continence Nurse from Newtown. She worked in the Newtown Mass Vaccination Centre part-time from December.

She said: “I was able to join the MVC because our service was a little quieter than normal due to COVID. I was therefore able to work part time in the vaccine centre and part time in my continence role. 

"Working in the vaccine centre was fabulous and a privilege. We felt like we were helping get the country back on its feet. I met so many wonderful people both in and out of the health board that I would never have met before. Seeing people come in for their vaccine who may not have left the house for almost a year was extremely emotional and it was an honour to be able to support them.

"The service was built from nothing and has had to change on an almost weekly basis and it was amazing to see how everyone was able to adapt.”