Revealed: The 50 English hospitals beginning Pfizer Covid vaccinations next week
More than 50 NHS England hospitals are ready to start administering the approved Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine from next week.
The list of sites was set out in a letter to trusts last month from Emily Lawson, NHS England's chief commercial officer, and Sue Harriman, chief operating officer of the Covid-19 vaccination deployment programme.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said hospitals were one of the "three modes of delivery" for the vaccination - alongside mass vaccination centres and community rollout via GPs and pharmacists.
The UK has so far ordered 40 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, enough to immunise 20 million people.
ITV News got access to University Hospital Coventry & Warwickshire, one of the hospitals that will be administering the vaccine first.
Mark Easter, Director of Pharmacy, said the hospital had to buy a new specialist freezer for the vaccine, as it has to be stored at minus 70C.
He said the vaccine comes in 975 dose packs and all have to removed at once and then left to thaw for three hours.
Two nurses demonstrating the vaccination process
After that, all 975 doses have to be transported to a ward, where it is again refrigerated, before being put into a syringe for injection.
Each step in the process lowers the shelf life of the vaccine and any delays could waste the injection so a quick and smooth procedure is vital.
Elderly residents in care homes, who were at the top of the priority list, will no longer be the first to receive the jabs due to difficulties in storing and transporting the vaccine.
University Hospital Coventry & Warwickshire is planning on providing their at-risk medical staff, local care home staff and vulnerable patients the vaccine first.
Due to the speed at which the vaccine has moved from approval to rollout many hospitals are still working out exactly how and who they will offer jabs to.
Here is the list of the 53 NHS England hospitals ready to start Covid vaccinations next week:
Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Croydon University Hospital NHS Trust
Dartford & Gravesham NHS Trust
Dorset County Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust
East Kent Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (Colchester Hospital)
Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Guys & St Thomas NHS Trust
James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Kings College Hospital - Princess Royal University Hospital
Lancashire Teaching Hospital Trust
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Leicester Partnership NHS Trust
Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Medway NHS Foundation Trust
Mid and South Essex Hospitals Trust
Milton Keynes University Hospital
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital
Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust
North Bristol NHS Foundation Trust
North West Anglia Foundation Trust
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
Portsmouth Hospital University Trust
Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust
Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust
Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust
Stockport NHS Foundation Trust
St George’s University Hospitals NHS FT
The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
University College Hospitals Trust
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
University Hospital Coventry & Warwickshire
University Hospitals Derby Burton NHS FT
University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust
University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust
United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust
West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust
Wirral University Teaching Hospital
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
Yeovil District Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
The Pfizer vaccine has been shown in studies to be 95% effective and works in all age groups.
Announcing its approval on Wednesday, the British regulator stressed the jab had been put through an "extremely thorough and scientifically rigorous review" before being given clinical approval.
Dr June Raine, head of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, insisted their review of the vaccine met "strict standards of safety, of effectiveness and of quality".
She said the the vaccine is "well prepared" and the UK is "ready to roll into action now" to deploy the vaccine.