WOKINGHAM Volunteer Centre is offering residents the chance to help in an historic event: it is currently recruiting a team of vaccine marshals to lend a hand with the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccination programme.
It is looking for people who are willing to offer assistance outside of local vaccination centres, at GP surgeries and community sites across the borough.
“We need volunteers to help deal with people on arrival by checking their temperatures and making sure they’re following all of the covid-secure measures, like social distancing and wearing masks,” said Helena Badger, volunteer services manager at Wokingham Volunteer Centre.
Vaccine marshals will also advise people on where to go, and make sure nobody suffers any adverse effects from the vaccine.
And Ms Badger said she feels honoured to see Wokingham residents helping the NHS in what she deems “a historic event”.
“It’s huge for us to be asked to do this — it’s absolutely fantastic,” she said.
“This is a massive programme that will be going on from month-to-month, so we feel really proud to be asked to step forward.”
According to Ms Badger, without the work of volunteers, the entire coronavirus pandemic would have been infinitely more difficult.
“It hit home how essential volunteers were back in March, she said.
“And we’ve been blown away with how quickly people stepped forward.
“We literally could not have got through the pandemic without volunteers, and it really is a matter of life or death when they are out helping people.
“There’s a massive amount of people the NHS needs to get through with the rolling out of this vaccine, and volunteers are essential to making sure this is done quickly, efficiently and safely.”
At the time of writing, Wokingham Volunteer Centre is working with Brookside Practice in Lower Earley and Wokingham Medical Centre, but it intends to help administer the vaccine in more practices over the coming months.
It is now looking to recruit volunteers in the New Year for four hour shifts which run
on Mondays through until Saturdays.
These can be booked as one-off sessions or on an ongoing basis.
“We’re launching our own booking system online,” Ms Badger explained.
“It means that people can choose which practice they go and help with, and they can choose for which session.”
She hopes that this will make it easier for people to volunteer because they are able to pick and choose flexible shifts.
For more information on how to volunteer as a vaccine marshal, visit volunteerwokinghamborough.org.uk or email volunteer@wok-vol.org.uk
