COVID-19 vaccine programme: Research into the views of people in County Durham

Executive summary

In response to COVID-19, the NHS has launched one of the largest public vaccination programmes ever. To help local services and national policymakers understand how they can improve the vaccination programme, Healthwatch County Durham circulated and promoted a survey, developed by Healthwatch England in February 2021.

The survey questions aimed to help gauge public attitudes to, and experience of, the vaccination programme.

The NHS is doing everything it can to deliver COVID-19 vaccines, but there might be things that could be improved. HW County Durham wanted to know:

• What people in County Durham think about the vaccine programme?
• Would people be willing to have the vaccine if they had not already, and who has already had the vaccine?
• What people thought about information on the vaccination programme?

HW County Durham are using the results to help local services better target communities and improve their vaccine service.

HW County Durham received 260 responses to their survey, which were received all from the on-line survey. 206 (79%) of the people completing the survey were female and 51 (20%) were male with 2 people preferring not to say. 249 people completing the survey were “white British”, 5 people were “any other white” while 2 people preferred not to say.

Key Findings

• A high percentage of people who completed the survey are very positive about vaccines in general and in particular about receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. There was praise for the staff, volunteers and the organisation of the vaccination programme.
• 86% of survey respondents stated that their main reason for having the vaccination was to protect friends and family.
• Being able to access appropriate transport to vaccination centres was one of the major concerns raised. NHS County Durham Clinical Commissioning Group has arranged transport for some vulnerable people to vaccination sites.
• There were a small number of negative comments about the order in which people were called for the vaccination and some concerns about carers not being able to get the vaccination sooner.
• Because all the survey responses we received were from white British or other white ethnicity HW County Durham are unable to reach any conclusions about the attitudes or views of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities to the vaccination programme.
• 8 people said they thought the government should do more about misinformation and “scaremongering”.