The Enham Trust has managed to secure supplies to begin vaccinating its residents after its first Covid cases led to its CEO making an impassioned plea online.

Heath Gunn took to social media to call for the trust, which supports around 6,000 people across the South West, to be prioritised in the vaccination schedule so that it could provide vaccines to its residents with “complex disabilities”.

Following his call being taken up by the local MP, and with plenty of public support, the charity is now able to begin vaccinating residents and staff within the week.

Heath said: “I am warmed by, and thankful for the support following my video post on social media and pleased to confirm we have now been allocated times for vaccines earlier than we had feared.”

Last week, Heath Gunn took to LinkedIn to candidly discuss the challenges the trust were faced with having their residents vaccinated.

He said: “On our main site at Enham Alamein we have three care homes and we’ve been told by our fantastic GP surgery at Charlton Hill, that has supported us at every turn, that we are still a non-guaranteed two to three weeks away from potentially getting our residents vaccinated because apparently, our local CCG has put our residents in Group Four, whatever that means.

“I found myself writing to my MP to try and get help to try and get people potentially life saving vaccinations. We’ve been working flat out, as everybody else has, for 10 months now and successfully kept the virus at bay until the last few days.

“We’ve just got our first couple of confirmed cases in our care homes this week which for the staff is absolutely devastating and for the residents and staff is really worrying and it just appears to me the balance between who is going to get the vaccine and when is just wrong.

“If you’re measuring people’s vulnerability age isn’t the only determining factor, and if you measure people’s vulnerability surely physical vulnerability and underlying health conditions has to weigh alongside people in advanced years. I

“It just strikes me as crazy that I’m having to write to my MP to get help. It should be a given that the most vulnerable people in society are getting this vaccine first, and it’s just not the case.”

Gunn’s letter was received by Kit Malthouse, who told the Advertiser that he and the government were “extremely sympathetic to the situation of vulnerable and disabled residents in care,” adding that “they need protection from Covid-19 as quickly as possible.”

He continued: "Priority groups for the vaccine are set by an independent body of health experts - the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation - and they’ve made informed decisions based on the level of risk.

"Thanks to our fantastic doctors, nurses and armed forces we are delivering these jabs as fast as we can. We are on track to make sure that everyone in the first four priority groups, which include those that are clinically extremely vulnerable, receive their first jab by the middle of this month.”

The MP said that he had taken the issue up with colleagues in the Department of Health and Social Care, and on February 1, the Enham Trust announced it had been given permission to vaccinate its residents and care staff.

Heath said: “I am warmed by, and thankful for the support following my video post on social media and pleased to confirm we have now been allocated times for vaccines earlier than we had feared.”

The trust will now begin the process of vaccinating its 50 residents in its care homes, as well as the staff that care for them “in the most secure way.”

The local CCG were contacted for comment.