Whittington Health Trust's Hornsey Central Neighbourhood Health Centre has hit a vaccination milestone as it records 12 months of offering Covid-19 jabs on-site.

The centre reached the landmark date earlier this week, announcing it had administered 77,000 vaccinations to the community over the preceding year.

Varda Lassman, associate director of Nursing for Community Services at Whittington Health NHS Trust, said: “Setting up a new service at Hornsey Central Neighbourhood Health Centre was challenging, having never previously had a vaccination service on such a scale, as well as not really knowing the number of people that would be coming through to the centre.

“The start of the service coincided with wave two of the pandemic so a particular challenge was making sure we had the staff to run the vaccination centre, but we knew that the vaccine had to be delivered.

“Being amongst the first of the vaccination sites, there was nobody to learn from, but it has been great to have others come on board and to share the process with them since then.”

Varda noted that while there were challenges in setting up the site, highlights included “giving 77,000 vaccines in one year and seeing more and more people coming through every time the age range was increased were great”.

She added: “The support we received was also amazing – having retired nurses and midwives working with us was fantastic and we so appreciated the help from everyone who was redeployed to the vaccination centre, at the beginning and more recently with the booster programme.”

Heaping praise on her “diligent and dedicated” team, Varda said the focus moving forward continues to be on the vaccination programme as more people become eligible.

In addition to its Hornsey health centre recording 12 months as a vaccination site, this week the Whittington Health Trust was nominated for a HSJ Partnership Award for work and wellbeing initiative of the year.

Its work with Meals for the NHS, which provided access to hot and nutritious meals for all of its staff, saw it shortlisted alongside Barts Health Trust, Cygnet Health Care and others.

The HSJ Partnership Awards recognise “the most effective collaborations with the NHS”, rewarding entrants in categories such as best healthcare providers and best mental health partnership with the NHS.

This year’s ceremony takes place in London on March 24.