Southern general practices voice support for the Covid-19 vaccination programme with full page ads in community papers
Tuesday 19 October 2021Southern general practices are putting their collective voices behind the Covid-19 vaccination campaign with an open letter to the public published in the weekly community newspapers across Otago and Southland.
Southern is one of the best performing districts for vaccination uptake, and a distributed model that has general practices, pharmacies and Māori and Pasifika health providers helping to deliver the vaccine is among the reasons for the uptake of the vaccine in this region. With this open letter, general practices and WellSouth primary health network aim to reinforce primary care’s full support of the vaccination programme.
“People trust their general practice teams – practice nurses, GPs and others - as they’re the health provider most people see most often. We know our patients,” says Dunedin GP and WellSouth Chair Dr Doug Hill. “We are publishing the letter because we want to make a clear statement that we strongly support the vaccination programme. Getting two doses of the free vaccine is the best opportunity we have to protect our whānau and to get us back to life that is as close as possible to what we knew before the pandemic.”
Full page advertisements are this week appearing in Clutha Leader, The Star, Gore Ensign, Central Otago News, Oamaru Mail, Mountain Scene, Southern Rural Life, and Southland Express.
Also, today, WellSouth’s board and senior management team are declaring support for the programme, sharing their vaccination status on WellSouth social media sites.
WellSouth CEO Andrew Swanson-Dobbs says in the push to increase vaccine rates in the final months of the year, it is important to take every opportunity to support the campaign:
“We’re vaccinated and we want to lead by example, making it clear that WellSouth has absolute faith that the Covid-19 vaccine is safe and we encourage everyone who is eligible for the vaccine, to please get the vaccine.”
There are more than 110 locations across Southern delivering the Covid-19 vaccine, including many walk-in clinics. Book a vaccine online at http:// bookmyvaccine.nz. Or call 0800 28 29 26.
View more news