Rising to the challenge: a COVID-19 vaccination service for the housebound population

In January 2021, NHS England and NHS Improvement issued a standard operating procedure in order to support the safe deployment of the newly available COVID-19 vaccination programme in England. Community nursing services were tasked with developing a home immunisation service for housebound people (NHS England, 2021). This paper outlines how one organisation planned and set up a home-based vaccination service that was delivered by a community nursing team to people in their own homes. National guidelines dictated the eligibility criteria for the COVID-19 vaccinations (NHS England and NHS Improvement, 2021), and the inclusion criteria and national guidelines have been applied throughout the home immunisation programme. Patients already on district nursing caseloads were readily identifiable, and local GPs were able to identify some, but not all, of their patients. The hardest group to identify were patients who did not regularly engage with primary care services and adults with learning disabilities.