Chairman Paul Scally offers use of stadium as Medway vaccination centre

Paul Scally says MEMS Priestfield Stadium is available to use as vaccination centre.

The Chairman, Paul Scally, has offered the use of MEMS Priestfield Stadium as a Medway vaccination centre.

The venue has already been used as a testing hub, with the Royal Engineers overseeing proceedings in December 2020.

Rehman Chishti, the Member of Parliament for Gillingham and Rainham, contacted the Chairman on Thursday morning to ask if such an arrangement was possible, and the Chairman has said he is more than happy for the facility to be used, free of charge, as a benefit to those living in Medway, and beyond.

The MP stood in the House of Commons recently and called for a mass vaccination centre in Medway. To the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson MP, he said the following:

“My constituents in Gillingham and Rainham, and  the wider Medway towns, would like me, as their Member of Parliament, to raise their real concerns with the regards to the availability of the vaccine in our local towns.

“We have residents in their 80s and 90s who have not yet had the vaccination, and Medway was one of the hardest hit areas in the country and a variant was discovered in Kent.

“Can the Prime Minster please ensure that we have the mass vaccination centre in Medway?”

The Prime Minister responded:

“I share my honourable friend’s sense of frustration about the pace of the vaccine roll-out…he is entirely right that a consistency MP should want to see more done as fast as possible."

Chairman Paul Scally said: “Rehman Chishti MP has been working extremely hard recently for the benefit of those in Medway, and the wider area, and I am only too happy for the stadium to be used as a vaccination hub if the NHS, and local authorities, wish to do so.

“We want to do as much as we can to help everybody in these challenging times and I will continue to liaise with Rehman Chishti MP to assist in any way we can.”