Vaccine centre architect receives COVID jab from daughter

The architect who designed four large-scale vaccination centres in Hampshire has received his second COVID jab from someone close to his heart.

Mark Maffey returned to the Oakley Road vaccination centre in Southampton to have a sharp scratch delivered by his very own daughter, who had qualified as a vaccinator just days earlier.

Megan Maffey, 18, who hopes to become a midwife, was an hour and a half into her very first shift as a vaccinator when she came face to face with a very familiar patient.

“Dad was only about my 25th patient,” said Megan, who signed up as a vaccinator to gain clinical experience.

“I’d had lots of training and was being supervised at the time, so I felt quite relaxed about jabbing my dad. I’m really looking forward to vaccinating lots more people in the coming weeks and playing my own small part in this important work.”

Mark, an architect and senior project manager at Solent NHS Estates and Facilities, was a driving force behind the large-scale vaccination centres in Southampton, Portsmouth, Basingstoke and on the Isle of Wight.

It was a race against time to get all four venues designed, kitted out and up and running to start playing their crucial role in the nation’s fight against COVID-19.

Oakley Road opened in early January after a conference room, IT training suite and various NHS office spaces were converted into two vaccination “pods” now capable of treating 1,000 people a day.

For Mark, who worked out detailed bespoke plans for each centre, it has been a labour of love.

“I feel honoured to have been able to help shape these important centres – and extremely grateful to return as a patient and to receive my vaccination,” he said.

“Our Estates team did a brilliant job creating the centres and our clinical teams are doing an excellent job running them. Getting vaccinated by my daughter made the occasion even more special for me.”

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