The second Covid-19 vaccines for those who had a first dose in December will still go ahead at Bridport Medical Centre on Wednesday, January 6, despite Government announcing appointments should be rescheduled.

Bridport Medical Centre received new advice from UK chief medical officers that the second dose of the vaccine remains effective when given up to 12 weeks after the first dose, and should be given towards the end of this 12-week period.

However, the vaccination clinic on January 6 will be going ahead as planned and patients booked into this clinic should attend as arranged.

Bridport Medical Centre was chosen as the surgery to administer the vaccinations for the Jurassic Coast Primary Care Network (PCN), a collaboration of Barton House Surgery, Tollerford Practice, Lyme Regis Medical Centre, Charmouth Surgery and Bridport Medical Centre.

The Jurassic Cost clinical directors, together with Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) have agreed that this will go ahead.

Dr Andy Finucane and Dr Dani Farrell, clinical directors of the Jurassic Coast PCN, said: "Patients should be reassured that there are no safety concerns in the new guidance, and it will not impact on how effective the vaccination is in protecting patients from Covid-19 once the course is complete.

"Logistically, at such a late stage, it would be impossible to rearrange the appointments for the 975 patients booked on January 6.

"We await further guidance on the next stages of the vaccine programme, particularly following the extremely good news that the AstraZeneca (Oxford) vaccine has been approved for use.

"This vaccine should be far easier to manage and administer in primary care."

The Jurassic Healthcare senior management team meet daily to discuss the programme and will be meeting again on Monday and will keep patients informed of any changes.

"Dr Finucane and Dr Farrell added: "We will be reviewing how we progress with the next batch of vaccinations as a matter of urgency on Monday.

"Patients booked in for their second vaccine do not need to call us. We will contact patients to reschedule their second vaccine appointment. We ask that patients do not call their surgeries about this change but keep an eye on the practices' websites and local social media. Please do inform any friends or relatives who may not have access to these sites."

Bridport Medical Centre's Facebook can be found here