Doctors enjoy family reunion at Covid vaccination centre

Q Radio News/PA

A Covid-19 vaccination centre in Belfast gave a family of doctors an unexpected chance to work together.

GPs Lorna Holmes and her husband Bryan Burke retired in the same year that their son, Patrick, qualified as a junior doctor.

But when the coronavirus pandemic started, the couple, who had worked together in a practice in east Belfast, got their GMC registrations reinstated to offer their help.

Dr Holmes said they felt the vaccination centre at the SSE Arena was the “perfect opportunity to help”.

“It was something we could do, we were very well able to do it and we were very positive the whole way through,” she told the PA news agency.

“We were vaccinated before we started so I take my hat off to the people who ploughed on before vaccinations were introduced. I really do applaud them.”

Queues at the vaccination centre in the SSE Arena, Belfast

Dr Burke said: “We were fairly recently retired, and our colleagues both in general practice and in hospital were working their backsides off and we wanted to see what we could do to help out.

“To be able to help with the vaccination programme, to help take a little bit of the pressure off them – both the hospitals and general practice of course are still under immense pressure at the moment – so any little bit we can do to help here, we’re more than happy to do so.”

He described it as a team effort, which also involved dentists and support staff.

“I know it’s a cliche but it’s true, it has been a real team effort,” he said.

Junior doctor Patrick Burke with his parents, retired GPs Dr Bryan Burke and Dr Lorna Holmes in the SSE Arena 

Their son recently returned to Northern Ireland after qualifying as a junior doctor in England.

He said he felt helping with the vaccination effort at the SSE Arena was very worthwhile.

“It’s been a great opportunity to be part of a big project and to be alongside my parents,” he said.

“I qualified the same year that they retired, so it was as if they were handing the baton over to me – I didn’t expect to ever get to work with them.”

While considering what specialty he wants to go into, Dr Burke said he is interested in looking into psychiatry, after seeing how the pandemic drove home the importance of mental health.