An additional vaccination centre is open in Hastings from today, at Laycock Pharmacy in Ore and the staff have been described as an ‘inspiration’ by the local MP.

For Shammi and Sapna Radia who have operated the pharmacy for 35 years the opening has special significance as their daughter, Kajal has been working on the development of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine for the last year,

MP Sally-Ann Hart has already been to see the new facility and has given it the thumbs–up.

“I am delighted another vaccine site has opened to help with the mammoth operation already underway to vaccinate the adult population against Covid-19.

“The Conquest Hospital and the Hastings Centre have been doing sterling work in administrating the vaccine to the first four priority groups before the middle of February but the addition of the pharmacy site in Ore will help us turbo-charge these efforts and hit that target even sooner.

“I want to thank the staff at the Laycock pharmacy in Ore for stepping up and getting this site off the ground. I know it is a lot of hard work to set one of these sites up, but they have been a true inspiration to local people and are about to play a vital role in the vaccine deployment.”

The Laycock Pharmacy in Ore is run by Shammi and Sapna Radia and their team and has remained open throughout the pandemic for local residents.

Daughter Kajal who is based in Oxford has been part of the team that ran the trials for the UK vaccine that is now being deployed around the world, and soon to be administered from her parent’s pharmacy in Ore.

This site adds to the hospital hub already operating at The Conquest Hospital which is focused on NHS staff and social care staff; the Hastings Centre and also the Etchingham hub which is administering vaccines to residents in Rye and rural Rother.

On the opening of the pharmacy as a vaccine site Mr Radia said: “This is an amazing moment for our pharmacy in Hastings, we’re fortunate that our premises are large enough to deliver the minimum requirement of 1,000 doses per week. This is also an all-round community effort with overwhelming responses from nurses and volunteers who want to help get the vaccine out to those in the community who most need it.

“As community pharmacists we are always on the frontline of serving our community, but this goes above and beyond anything we have ever done before. We’re honoured to be contributing to something so big and can’t wait to get going.”