Beckhoff Automation opens local vaccination center in Verl, Germany production hall
Last Wednesday, the first two established medical practices in Verl, Germany, began vaccinating their patients against the coronavirus in a vaccination center set up by Beckhoff. In a production hall in Verl, the company set up six vaccination lines on a total of 1,500 square meters. In this way, Beckhoff intends to support the important work of general medical practitioners and provide further capacity to supply an important vaccination to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.
“The focus of this whole campaign is to support the general practitioners. These healthcare professionals bring in their patients and vaccinate them with the specific vaccine ordered by the practices. We provide the infrastructure and help with the local organization. We believe that this will enable us to increase the doctors’ capacity, which will be particularly crucial when more and more vaccines become available,” explains Frederike Beckhoff, assistant to the management board at Beckhoff and currently responsible for the company's coronavirus measures. In setting up the vaccination lines, Beckhoff received significant, helpful information from the large public vaccination center in Gütersloh. Frederike Beckhoff adds: “The public vaccination center in Gütersloh has built up an impressive infrastructure. We received important information to use here, for which we are very grateful. We then set up our local vaccination center in close consultation with the city of Verl. The local authorities were a great support in this.”
Mayor Michael Esken established contact with the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians of Westphalia-Lippe and other authorities to support the effort. The municipal building inspectorate granted approval for the change of use for the production hall as quickly as possible. “The city is very grateful that the practicing doctors and the Beckhoff company are so strongly committed to the vaccination campaign and are joining forces. That's why we were happy to help get the local vaccination center up and running as quickly as possible,” says Esken.
“In addition, the doctors who now use the vaccination center have provided a great amount of expertise and input on all the issues. Together, we managed to get the vaccination center up and running within four weeks. Five weeks ago, production was going on in this hall, and now a maximum number of 500 to 600 people a day could be vaccinated in our six vaccination lines.”, adds Frederike Beckhoff. Last week, the first 85 people were vaccinated there, and the doctors have estimated that the number this week could be twice as many.
Currently, there is still room to expand vaccination capacity, as Frederike Beckhoff explains: “If necessary, we can make our infrastructure available to other doctors in the region and support them in organizing the vaccinations. As soon as our company receives vaccines and company doctors are allowed to vaccinate employees, we would like to offer vaccinations to all employees as quickly as possible. In addition, we will then be happy to offer other companies in the region the use of our vaccination infrastructure."