Wermelskirchen: Vaccinations To Go Now Available

Wermelskirchen. After a stroll through the city, just go to the doctor’s office and get a flu vaccination? Sounds a bit strange, but you can now do it in Wermelskirchen. The doctors at the Center for Internal Medicine on Dabringhauser Straße are now offering a so-called “vaccination to go”. This means that people can come to the practice at certain times and get vaccinated against influenza. And that, emphasizes doctor Dr. Max Hatting, doesn’t just apply to the practice’s existing patients.

“We deliberately wanted to create a vaccination offer for those people who may not currently have a family doctor,” says Hatting. And experience shows that there are quite a few of them.

And: “We took the Long Night of Vaccination as an example. We liked the idea and took it up.”

Background: The third “Long Night of Vaccination” took place nationwide on October 8th. Participating pharmacies, medical practices and company doctors throughout Germany offered vaccinations against Covid and flu at a late hour that day. Pharmacies in Wermelskirchen and Burscheid also took part.

These are the vaccination recommendations

According to the recommendation of the Standing Vaccination Commission (StIko), all people aged 60 and over, all pregnant women from the second trimester onwards, if there is an increased health risk due to an underlying disease from the first trimester onwards, people with an increased health risk as a result of an underlying disease, such as chronic diseases of the respiratory system, heart or circulatory diseases, liver or kidney diseases, diabetes or other metabolic diseases, chronic basic neurological diseases such as Multiple sclerosis with flare-ups triggered by infections, congenital or acquired immunodeficiency or HIV.

In addition, residents of retirement or nursing homes, people who, as a possible source of infection, can endanger people living in the same household or those they care for at risk, as well as people who have frequent, regular and direct contact in their private environment with, for example, pigs, poultry and wild birds (free and kept) and seals.

According to StIko, in the context of an increased occupational risk, people with increased risk should also be vaccinated, for example medical staff, people in facilities with extensive public traffic, people who can act as a possible source of infection for high-risk people they look after and people who have frequent, regular and direct contact with, for example, pigs, poultry, wild birds and seals for work reasons and who work in livestock farms, zoos and animal parks, animal shelters or rescue centers. Veterinary practices and slaughterhouses.

Vaccination offers for adults are often not taken up

“Unfortunately, according to statistics, many of the people mentioned do not take sufficient advantage of the vaccination offers,” says Max Hatting. The Robert Koch Institute informs that only a little more than a third of people aged 60 and over and adults with an underlying illness are vaccinated against flu (influenza).

After a brief increase at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the flu vaccination rate has now returned to pre-pandemic levels.

These are the dates

Vaccinations take place in the practice on Dabringhauser Straße every Thursday between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. and Fridays between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. Anyone interested can simply stop by the practice, Dabringhauser Straße 19, with their insurance card without an appointment.

“So far,” says Dr. Eric Jörgensen, who has been running the family doctor’s practice together with Max Hatting for over a year, “unfortunately it is almost only our own patients who are getting vaccinated. But we would be happy if as many Wermelskirchen residents as possible would accept the offer.” The doctors want to keep it going until December.

RGA