New vaccination clinic for WANDAS women

The Women and Newborn Drug and Alcohol Service (WANDAS) at WNHS provides specialist clinical services and professional support in the care of pregnant women with complex alcohol and other drug (AOD) use issues. 

Staff at WANDAS see many vulnerable women who have great difficulty accessing healthcare for a myriad of reasons. 

For some, it is the severe health anxiety they manage and for others it is merely access to medical help. Dr David Owen is an Obstetric Consultant for the WANDAS service and said that it occurred to the team that offering a vaccination service would not only inform women of the risks faced by pregnant women with COVID but also be able to facilitate access to vaccination.

“It occurred to me that if I was able through counselling to assuage their anxieties, I could administer the vaccine myself offering a one-stop clinic,” he said.

Dr Owen went on to complete an online course to administer vaccines and supported by the Executive Obstetrics and Gynaecology Team he was able to kick start a vaccination service for women.

“It’s been a real team effort,” he said. “I am full of praise for Lauren the consultant midwife for WANDAS who has been so helpful with her brilliant communication and counselling skills and I think the greatest success has been reassuring women who were previously too anxious to get vaccinated because of misinformation.

“The women in WANDAS are particularly vulnerable to COVID so I’m most interested in being able to vaccinate women who wish to receive the vaccine through informed choice.”

“The WANDAS team enjoy an excellent rapport with the women needing our care and this above all else has ensured success.  This is a team effort and subsequently the roaming COVID vaccination nurses have visited WANDAS clinics and helped enormously. I would like to pay tribute to all those excellent nurses.”