The City Council of Famalicão hired 24 nurses to increase the response capacity of the Covid-19 Vaccination Centre in the county, installed at CIIES, in Vale S. Cosme, thus providing health entities with an extraordinary bank of 4000 hours in nursing service until the end of July.
The decision is a response to a request made to the municipality by the Health Centre Grouping of Famalicão, foreseeing that the need to reallocate nursing teams to the normal activity of the various health units could "harm the performance in the vaccination centre and also the slowness of the process". Now, an average of 1500 vaccines are being administered in S. Cosme per day.
The 24 nurses - who were unemployed or available outside working hours - were employed in the regime of work for hire. For this purpose, the City Council used the contracting grant of the Order of Nurses, created to maximise the efforts for the acceleration and progressive expansion of vaccination in Portugal.
The Covid-19 Famalicão Vaccination Centre, installed in February at CIIES through a partnership established between the City Council and the ACES of Famalicão, has already administered close to 73,000 vaccines.
The infrastructure has the support of more than twenty technicians lent by the City Council for the reception, referral and guidance of users. The cleaning of the space and external surveillance are also entrusted to the human resources of the municipality. In all, the municipality has assigned around 60 human resources to the Vaccination Centre.
In addition to providing the space, the City Council also provided various logistical equipment such as tents, screens, chairs, tables, cabinets, electrical and internet installation, as well as grids, cones and signposts. Administrative support equipment was also provided, such as computers, printers, mobile phones, among others.
It should be recalled that the City Council also offers free bus transportation from the local health units according to the bookings made.
In addition, the municipality also provides two vehicles that are at the service of ACES for the travel of health professionals for home vaccination of dependent patients.
The Covid-19 Famalicão Vaccination Centre operates from Monday to Friday, from 8am to 8pm, and at weekends when vaccines are available.