AN art installation celebrating work carried out at a Wirral Covid vaccination centre has gone on display at the Royal College of General Practitioners HQ in London.
Birkenhead Vaccination Centre was one of the first Coronavirus jab centres in the UK, starting its work in December 2021.
It kept its service open providing a bookable and open access walk-in facility.
The service also conducted around 60 outreach clinics in various parts of Wirral to meet the needs of the people and to date over 225,000 vaccines have been administered.
All of the injection vials and consumables used by staff were saved and turned into a legacy art project. Ideas and potential interest were explored on a non-commercial basis.
Melissa Davies, a staff member of Miriam Primary Care Group, came up with two ideas. A local art student, Jono Brown, also agreed to work alongside Melissa to undertake another project.
Melissa created a model of a Giant Pfizer vaccine vial using over 2,500 individual vials and other consumables.
The second creation was a wall plaque representing a Rainbow with the NHS logo to symbolise the enormous hard work of health and social care staff.
Jono created a large Covid cell with rubber bands and vials hanging by a meat hook. This represents the herd immunity provided by the vaccine and humanity’s ability to bounce back from the pandemic.
Dr Abhi Mantgani, clinical Lead for the service, said: “I suggested saving these items so that we can explore creating something to commemorate this dark period in our lives and the huge efforts to overcome it especially through mass vaccination.
"We displayed the artwork in our waiting area for the past year.
“We explored various options to display them to a wider audience and were delighted when the Royal College of General Practitioners agreed to display them at its headquarters in 30 Euston Square London on a long-term loan.
“This was installed earlier this month at the RCGP, we feel it is in the appropriate place to reach a wider audience and reflect the enormous work of general practice during the pandemic.”
