Military personnel from the Royal Navy and RAF have been undertaking training from the NHS at Ashton Gate Football Ground in Bristol today in order to validate them as a Vaccines Quick Reaction Force (V-QRF) to support of NHS in the South West of England.
The V-QRF will be rolled out nationally and is made up of medically trained personnel who will vaccinate people on a needs basis. This means personnel will be engaged only when required and requested by the NHS in a ‘surge’ capacity.
The V-QRFs are made up of 21 teams, 3 to each of the 7 NHS regions. Each region is to be given a Medical Support Officer (MSO) who will manage three 6 person teams and will link into their regional Joint Military Command (JMC).
The Medics underwent familiarisation of the patient pathway, working areas and undertook vaccination procedures on dummy arms.