A VACCINE hub in Romsey has staged its final clinic this week as part of the UK's biggest vaccination programme.

The last clinic was held on Wednesday, June 9, before staff from Romsey and North Baddesley practices stood down from the vaccination centre.

This comes after a Facebook post from the practices explained staff and more than 90 volunteers have "worked tirelessly" to deliver at least 28,000 Covid-19 jabs from the hub, but GPs now want to focus on bringing staff back into surgeries to care for their patients.

Now leaders at a Romsey-based charity, Unity, have praised everyone who has helped roll out the game-changing jabs since December 2020.

Unity Chairman, Dorothy Baverstock, said: "On behalf of the entire Unity Board of Trustees, we would like to express our gratitude to all the volunteers who have provided support as car park wardens, meet and greeters and cleaners.

"They have had an essential role to play in helping local residents and we are overwhelmed by their kindness.

"Our thanks must also go to the NHS staff, who have been exceptional too and without a doubt have helped save local lives.”

Unity Chief Executive, Terry Bishop, added: "Talking to volunteers, it was apparent that there was a real sense of pride in being a small part of this critical inoculation programme.

"To say thank you to them and to the Unity staff, who behind the scenes have worked hard to support them, seems so insignificant but we are now in discussions to plan a real thank you to them all in due course.”

This comes after the charity announced it will be offering patients transport to vaccine hubs if they don't have access to a car or public transport.

Deputy leader of Test Valley Borough Council, councillor Nick Adams-King, also claims to have urged the Hampshire and IOW Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to launch pop-up clinics.

He believes this will cut travel time for patients who need the jab.

He explained: "A number of other sites are not particularly easy to get to using public transport, so if you're without a car accessing them becomes challenging.

"I have pressed the CCG to consider pop-up clinics if there are a number of people who are unable to access the vaccination centres."

The leader previously posted on Facebook, people booking vaccine appointments in southern Test Valley will be directed to sites in Totton, Eastleigh and Southampton.

Crosfield Hall was first transformed into a coronavirus vaccine site in December as part of the UK's biggest immunisation programme in history.