How Britain’s theatres and venues became the heart of the vaccine rollout

With space needed to roll out the vaccine as quickly as possible, and theatres around Britain standing empty, it seems entirely logical to use arts venues as vaccination centres. Speaking to The Telegraph recently, Andrew Lloyd Webber heartily endorsed the idea.

Happily, several theatres have indeed joined forces with the NHS to bring the vaccine to their communities. The Lights in Andover, Hampshire, was already known to the local clinical commissioning group as a venue for blood-donor sessions. “We usually hold about 20 a year,” explains director Heather Whittham.

Following about a month of discussions with five local GP practices, it was agreed that The Lights would become a central base for them to administer the vaccine, beginning on December 22.

“We’re quite lucky – we have a large arena space,” says Whittham. “In the daytime, it’s a café area, and in the evening, it’s audience seating and a foyer for the café and bar, so it was just a case of clearing that out so they could set up the stations for vaccinations.” All medical equipment, including vaccine storage facilities, was brought in by NHS staff.

Once people have received the vaccine, they have to wait for 15 minutes before leaving. “So we put on music in the background, which is soothing for those who are anxious. In December, we were rocking out to Christmas tunes! We also have volunteers who help put people at their ease. In some cases, they haven’t left the house since March.”

At The Lights, both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines are being used, with the aim of administering “around 400 a day,” says Whittham. “People stick to their time slots, so there hasn’t been too much queueing. Some days it’s staff from one surgery, some days it’s two. We’re also used as a base for storing the vaccine that they’re taking to administer at care homes nearby.”

Whittham notes the theatre’s customers were “incredibly supportive” of its use as a vaccine centre. “We pride ourselves on just not being a theatre, but a community hub as well. It’s another way to consolidate our position. And, in the long term, of course we’d love to get audiences coming back.

“We’ve also had thousands of people coming through the door who’ve never been here, even though we’ve been around for 14 years. Hopefully, they’ll return once we’re putting on shows again. We get lots of big comedy names doing preview shows.” Ivo Graham is due in May and Sindhu Vee in June.

The theatre has been closed since March last year, though they were able to host some dance classes and did open-air shows last summer. “Theatres are well equipped for something like the vaccine programme because in our industry, people throw themselves into things – it’s a passion. We provide good customer service, because otherwise visitors don’t return, and we’re adaptable.

“Without this vaccine, we’re not going to have people coming back through our doors. At least doing this gives us hope that we can get back to normal.”

That’s also the hope of Janet Heald, events and front-of-house manager for Wyre Theatres in Lancashire. Thornton Little Theatre was first approached in September last year to provide space for a flu vaccination programme for three local GP surgeries, beginning with the over-65s.

“Since that was so successful, they then approached us just before Christmas to do the same for the Pfizer vaccine.” Those three surgeries cover, she notes, about “33,000 patients”.

The Thornton Little Theatre is ideal, says Heald, because “it’s spacious, it’s on a good bus route, and we’ve got great parking facilities.” Covid vaccinations began on January 7, concentrating on the over-80s.

“We were able to do a full set-up for them, using our existing polling station booths and partitions – it was quite a creative solution! And we’ve had staff on hand from our front-of-house, cleaning and technical teams.”

Since the news broke, they’ve had a lot of calls from people eager to get the vaccine, so Heald is keen to stress that “you need to wait to be contacted by your GP”. Just turning up won’t get you the jab.

The theatre is normally used by lots of community groups, but that hasn’t been possible with social distancing. So, Heald says she’s delighted that they’ve been able to open their doors again and help out. “It’s nice that most of our patients are very familiar with the venue, which is reassuring for them. We recognise lots of our regular patrons, and they know our team.

“We’re treating the vaccine rollout like any new show or event: as soon as we’ve done it once, we’re organised and we’re ready to go.”

Hertford Theatre, in Hertfordshire, has also risen to the challenge, says its director Rhys Thomas. Their spacious auditorium had already been used to host blood donations and flu vaccines, so they became a site for the Pfizer vaccine in December. “And I believe the Oxford one is coming on track soon.”

It began with a trial week, Thomas recalls, “to set up things like security for the vaccine. We worked closely with local police and checked all our alarm systems. We also made sure that the team could access everything, while staying socially distanced.”

Now, the NHS team is administering vaccinations Monday to Saturday, from 8am to 8pm, and Thomas is proud to be a part of the effort. “We always played a part in the community that extends far beyond putting on shows and films, and we’re interested in exploring ways that we can communicate what we do.”

In fact, the venue had already linked those two offerings – arts and health – when doing flu vaccinations, says Thomas. “We did a little offer, ‘Flu and a Film’! Anything we can do to encourage people to engage with the building is positive.”

Hertford Theatre volunteers usually work on events like chatter tables, “which address isolation. That social engagement is now supporting the vaccine delivery, and it’s all about making people feel happier, healthier, safer and proud to be part of this community effort.”

Thomas notes that their staff and volunteers receive training in areas like dementia-friendly communication, “which, given the demographic of people currently coming in, has proved to be invaluable. It’s about sensitivity, as well as experience and expertise. Plus we know how to strategically get people in and out of the building with social distancing already.”

Thomas would love to see more theatres used as vaccination centres. “It keeps venues on people’s radars, keeps staff on the payroll, and keeps the blood coursing through the veins of the building. And it’s important that theatres play their part – those that can. Obviously, some older buildings are quite compact internally or have bolted-down seating.”

But for those viable logistically, “it’s a great opportunity. Theatres can be deployed in all sorts of unusual ways, and it’s fantastic to see our resources used as effectively as possible – for the good of us all.”