Lambeth’s great collaborative efforts continued with a pop-up clinic at the KN Centre on Saturday 1 May that saw 187 local people coming forward for their COVID-19 vaccination, boosting Lambeth numbers and improving access for hesitant populations to this life-saving protection.

It was a great turn out for Lambeth’s diverse population and a strong success with many attendees representing communities that might be traditionally thought of as ‘hard to reach’ due to cultural or language barriers. Over 70% were made up of African, Asian, Caribbean, Latin American or Portuguese speaking populations. This no doubt was linked to the role of the mosque as a site and the strong local connections.

These local clinics are a great way to engage with local people who have been resistant previously. At this clinic over half of those vaccinated could be deemed as patients who have so far not engaged with their call to take up the vaccine or who were not registered. Examples include:

  • a 83 year old Arabic speaking Man who came because it was the mosque and he trusted this
  • a 70 year old Spanish gentleman attending with his daughter who came for her vaccine
  • a 50+ year old Caribbean lady attended because she was inspired by the community element of the event
    some who did not read/speak English well or were unregistered with a GP
Residents get vaccinated

Partners who supported the event included: StockWell Being Primary Care Network, Ash-Shahada Housing Association, SGCS, South London Imams and Scholars Council (SLISC), FIRD. Other organisations who offered support included Lambeth Portuguese Wellbeing Partnership (LPWP) and Bright Centres.

Volunteers for the Pop Up Clinic

Florence Eshalomi MP said “Great turnout of residents coming forward to be vaccinated at Stockwell Mosque.” Councillor Irfan Mohammed said “Really wonderful to visit Stockwell pop up clinic really good turnout 4 Vaccines take up”. Councillor Lucy Caldicott said “Great to hear that 190 people got their vaccinations yesterday through this local team effort”.

The Lambeth Portuguese Wellbeing Partnership said “The joint effort from our community, faith leaders, in partnership with the NHS, has shown great results against COVID-19”. NHS Lambeth CCG said the event was an “amazing partnership work in #Lambeth continuing to #KeepLambethSafe”.