Rugby Club staff help out at new centre

By Mark Stevens
26/1/21

Staff from Exeter Chiefs and Sandy Park are among the volunteers helping to marshall at the city’s new vaccination centre, which has opened at the Westpoint Arena.

The opening of the centre means thousands of vaccination jabs can be administered, helping to combat the threat of Covid-19 within the local community.

The centre, which is being managed by the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust (RD&E), was established by the NHS with support from a team of volunteers from Network Rail, whose volunteers also pitched in to help set up the NHS Nightingale Hospital in Exeter last year.

As has been the case throughout the pandemic, Exeter Chiefs and Sandy Park have been keen to play their part in assisting the authorities in whatever form and today, Chiefs community development manager, Aron Struminski, outlined the role he and his colleagues are going to play.

Hesaid: "As a club we know how much we rely on our local community for support. Now, when the community needs us to step up, we want to help give back a little ourselves and that is why we are delighted that a number of our staff at Sandy Park have stepped up to volunteer at the new Exeter vaccination centre.

"These are incredibly tough times for all of us, but the roll out of the vaccination is a huge step in the right direction and we are determined to do our bit in helping combat this pandemic.”

Members of the public want to volunteer to be part of the biggest vaccination programme in NHS history can do so by clicking here

Volunteers are being sought to work at sites at Westpoint and Plymouth Argyle’s Home Park, as well as in North Devon and Torbay. They will help manage patient flow and direct people as required.