Personal phone call in native language sees more than 100 take up coronavirus vaccine

More than 100 people who had not taken their Covid vaccination have now received their jab after a personal telephone call from multilingual volunteers.

The team who speak, or could arrange translations in, Urdu Punjabi, Kurdish, Arabic and Bengali phoned those who had been identified by GPs in Manchester to discuss their concerns.

Following the personal call, 110 people from Ladybarn Group Practice, Al-Shifa Medical Centre and David Medical centre, had their vaccinations on February 28 at a clinic in Fallowfield.

Multilingual staff and translated materials were also available at the centre.

Fiona Vincer, a Health Development Co-ordinator covering Chorlton Park, Didsbury and Burnage was part of the team that started the project.

Fiona said:

She added: "For a lot of people it’s also about the personal touch – not everyone responds well to messages on phones or emails and that’s why we decided to take this specific approach."

Dr Oliver Atkinson, Clinical Director, Didsbury, Chorlton Park and Burnage Primary Care Network, said: “The practices of our primary care network grouping are committed to addressing the inequalities we've witnessed throughout the pandemic, and the hesitancy within certain cohorts about the vaccination programme.

“By rapidly mobilising a multilingual team of volunteers, we were able to contact over one hundred people of Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds who had previously declined or not responded to previous attempts to book a vaccination.

"By engaging directly with them over the phone we were able to answer questions and debunk vaccination myths. We are aware of the ongoing inequalities and will continue to work alongside our community partners to maximise uptake and inclusivity of Covid vaccinations."