HASLEMERE’S Covid vaccination clinic decamped to G Live in Guildford this week, after the St Christopher’s Church centre was found to be too small.

It had been hoped the St Christopher’s clinic, launched on December 15 after a huge effort by the town’s health workers and volunteers, would have capacity to deliver up to 400 vaccines a day.

However, it was quickly realised the pop-up clinic would be able to deliver only half that number while keeping patients and staff safe.

With the Pfizer vaccine arriving in batches of 975 doses, and with a shelf life of just three days, the church was found to be unable to deliver the vaccine without risking many doses going to waste.

The Herald understands almost 400 of Haslemere’s first batch of doses were subsequently returned for use at the Royal Surrey County Hospital.

And shortly after, the decision was taken by the town’s GPs, in collaboration with the Surrey Heartlands NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), to relocate the town’s vaccine provision to the G Live arts venue in Guildford.

Confusion ensued as many elderly residents had their original St Christopher’s appointments cancelled, in some cases twice over.

But in an interview with BBC Surrey yesterday, the GP leading Haslemere’s vaccine rollout, Dr Phil Ridsdill-Smith, said the new G Live clinic was running “very smoothly” after launching on Tuesday.

Dr Ridsdill-Smith added his hope the St Christopher’s clinic would reopen once more as soon as stocks of the easier-to-store Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine arrive – potentially next week – and this was confirmed by a Surrey Heartlands CCG spokesman.

What little stocks of the Oxford vaccine that have been delivered to Haslemere are being distributed by NHS staff at the town’s care and nursing homes.

* Read more on the Covid vaccine rollout locally in this week’s Herald