Security Metal Detectors for Brighton Vaccination Centre

Insight Security is very proud to be supporting the Brighton COVID-19 vaccination centre at the Brighton Centre by supplying 8 x Garrett PD6500i walkthrough metal detector arches for security screening. Residents and health care staff have been receiving their immunisation injections since January 25th when the vaccination centre, the largest in Sussex, officially opened. The Brighton Centre is one of around 90 mass vaccination centres across the UK which are part of the large network of around 1500 vaccination sites that include pharmacies, GP services and some hospital sites. Vaccination Program Success More than 17 million people have now received at least a first dose of coronavirus vaccine, around one-third of the UK population. This beats the target set by the government to reach everyone in its top four priority groups by mid February. These top four priority groups include care home residents, residential care workers, people over 70 and healthcare workers. The government had previously stated the objective was for all adults to get their first jabs by September but this has been revised and it’s now been declared that every UK adult should have received their first vaccine injection by July 31st. The revised vaccination targets also calls for everyone with underlying health conditions or aged 50 and over to have received their first two vaccination jabs by April 15th, rather than May 1st, which had previously been stated. A key factor in the success of the UK rollout has been the use of existing groups of GPs, known as primary care networks (PCNs). Each of these is responsible for up to around 50,000 patients and they were all required to commit to vaccinating people for up to 12 hours a day, seven days a week, to meet the desired targets. Preparations for the Brighton Centre to meet these demanding requirements, whilst keeping staff and patients safe, took around 10 weeks to complete. The result is a highly efficient and effective mass vaccination centre that’s fully operational 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. Siobhan Melia, Chief Executive of Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Setting up the Brighton Centre has been a phenomenal challenge for our teams and I want to pay tribute to each and every member of SCFT staff who has worked tirelessly as part of the COVID-19 vaccination programme." “From the recruitment and training of hundreds of new members of staff, to the logistics of transforming this entertainment venue to a vaccination centre, our teams have been working around the clock to make sure we are in a position to get this vaccination centre up and running for the communities we serve. At the same time, our teams are delivering the vaccine to residents and staff in care homes, supporting GPs at GP-led vaccination sites and we will also support the vaccination of vulnerable, housebound residents over the coming weeks as well." “We’ve never undertaken anything of this scale before and in a year when the NHS has risen to so many challenges I am, once again, so proud and humbled by the incredible efforts of SCFT staff.” Getting Vaccinated at the Brighton Centre A major factor in the success of the Brighton Centre vaccination operation is meticulous organisation. It’s important that patients attend the centre on time for their vaccination appointments as it’s essential that throughput is maintained and everyone at the centre remains safely socially distant at all times. People can enter the Brighton Centre only via the main front doors and shouldn’t arrive more than 5 minutes before their appointment. All staff and attendees are required to wear face masks at all times and marshalls are in place to make certain people are adhering to social distancing. Patients are initially guided to clinical screeners who ask a number of important questions to make certain they are OK to be vaccinated. Queries they investigate include: If you have a history of anaphylactic reactions to vaccinations. If you have a medical history that may affect suitability for vaccination. If you have had a COVID-19 vaccination within the past 28 days (need to know date). If you have had a flu vaccination within the past 7 days. After successfully undergoing the screening checks patients are then guided to a vaccinator, located in the upper Brighton Centre auditorium. After receiving vaccinations patients are then required to be observed for 15 minutes to check for any immediate, adverse reactions. Careful planning and hard work means that inoculation appointments at the Brighton Centre are taking no more than around 30 minutes from start to finish. And to alleviate concerns over city centre car parking one hour of free parking has been made available at the Brighton Churchill Square Orange car park for all vaccination patients, on presentation of their vaccination appointment details. Common Side Effects Vaccines, like all forms of medication, can cause side effects. Most people don’t experience any adverse reactions to their COVID-19 inoculations and those who do only experience short term symptoms. Common side effects include: Painful or heavy feeling and tenderness in the arm where the injection was carried out. This tends to be worst around 1 to 2 days after the jab. Feeling tired. Headaches and general aches. Mild flu-like symptoms. These symptoms tend to last for less than a week. People are advised that if symptoms persist or if they have any other concerns they should contact the NHS on 111. Security Metal Detectors - Help Keep People Safe Anyone who has travelled through an airport or another transport hub will already be very familiar with metal detector arches. These easy-to-use security devices are also being more widely used in public buildings, colleges and other establishments and events, to bolster security and deter potential attackers. Those supplied by Insight Security to the Brighton Centre are top of the range Garrett PD6500i walkthrough metal detector arches, sometimes called ‘knife arches’ as they are commonly used to prevent people from carrying weapons. These widely used and trusted security metal detectors are relied upon for rigorous security screening. An important attribute of these Garrett security metal detector arches is their ability to quickly and thoroughly check and screen a high number of people in busy situations, making them ideal for the Brighton Centre. People are simply required to walk through the arch and the inbuilt sensors detect any metal objects they may be carrying. The location of any detected metal items on a subject’s body is indicated to the operator, based on a grid of 33 zones in 3 vertical columns. Operators can quickly determine that someone may have a metallic object in their trousers, jacket pockets or possibly secreted in their socks. Security screening at the Brighton Centre is providing staff and attendees with confidence and safety. End in Sight? With over 120,000 coronavirus deaths across the UK everyone is keen to see an end to the pandemic and a return to some degree of normality. Prime minister Boris Johnson has set out the government’s road map to take the country out of the current lockdown, but it has been stressed that commercial and social reopenings will be slow and cautious. Easing of restrictions over the Christmas period resulted in soaring infection rates and hospitalisations which triggered the current lockdown and nobody wants to see a repeat of this. Coronavirus case numbers are now falling and early indications are that the vaccination program is helping reduce the possibility of serious illness. But with the likelihood of further, more virulent coronavirus strains developing it’s essential that a slow, cautious approach is taken and that everyone who can be vaccinated gets their jabs. And we must all continue to take appropriate precautions - even after we’ve been inoculated.

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