Experiences of Teh Plague

[Lightning Phil]

Online booking now opened to those aged 56 and over.

[Polar Bear]

Indeed.  Thought that I'd give it a try.

I live around 1km from the mass vaccination centre in Rugby.  I am registered blind so do not drive but in the list of accessibility options this is not considered.

I am offered the nearest centre 9.1 miles away.

Now tell me that this system has been thought through and is designed to help disabled people.  Also, people in Rugby are being sent to the far side of Coventry when there is a centre on their doorstep.  How is this in any way sensible?   

[Jaded]

Hmmm, as evidenced by the 12 point lead the Tories have in the polls?

[Polar Bear]

I can't help it if people are uncaring, selfish or simply stupid.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Email gives three specific dates and timeslots. If it is going to be every Monday and Thursday then it makes a bit of sense.

I'm working at a school testing centre, and it's just the three tests as they go back, and then home testing.
The school I'm at are making arrangements for a significant number of pupils who can't or won't test at home to be tested in school.
The school does not believe that the home test results will be at all reliable and predict another government u-turn on school testing.

(Would you self-report a positive test if you were 15 knowing you'd miss out on seeing your mates, and have to go for a blood test?)

Haven't been told anything about home testing. I guess he'll find out on Monday. Maybe.

[Polar Bear]

I'll try to keep this brief.

A friend of ours in his sixties who like me has been partially sighted since birth though his sight has not degenerated to legally blind has just received an invite to get his first jab.  He doesn't drive and has never driven.   He lives about 400m from the local mass vaccination centre where other friends of ours from all around Rugby have received their first jab.  He has been invited to travel to Coventry or Milton Keynes.

WTF?

Which wanker has overseen such a ridiculously unfit for purpose pile of shite? 

He's trying but without any success at the moment to get this changed.  The system doesn't appear to cope with such clearly obvious requests.

Common sense has caught up with things and our friend has been offered a vaccination just round the corner from his home at the local mass vaccination centre. 

I have heard a number of stories now that people have been invited to use the website and travel (and some have) but have then also been offered the vaccination locally through their GP.  I shall hold out another few weeks for the GP invitation as I have no urgent need to travel for hours on public transport and increase my risk of actually catching the bloody virus!

[DuncanM]

My wife had the AZ vaccination at the GPs on Saturday (apparently coeliac disease puts you in one of the lower priority at risk groups). She spent much of the weekend feeling pretty ill, but is now basically OK again.
I've heard reports of different people in the same house being offered GP or vaccination centre jabs (eg my mother in law had the AZ one at her GP, and my father in law had the Pfizer one at a vac centre). I was wondering whether GP ones are for "vulnerable" people and the centres are doing it by age, but that's just speculation.

[Polar Bear]

My speculation on how it works based upon third hand experiences relayed to me is this:

GP's sign up to local mass vaccination clinics or administer vaccinations themselves.

NHS has also set up some vaccination centres and enrolled the likes of chemists etc. where the appropriate competence exists to also offer vaccinations.

NHS England (in my case) sends out letters to those eligible in the groups to go online and sign up.  The problem with this is that their vaccination "centres" are not necessarily local.  The GP will also send their "list" an invite to the local centre or to their own surgery if they are ones who have not signed up to a mass vaccination centre.

My GP is definitely signed up to the local centre so I can expect an invite at some point.  Hopefully ...

[Jaded]

Ah, that makes a bit more sense (the explanation, rather than the process!)

I'm happy to go a little further afield, if it means that those who are less mobile can have theirs done nearby.

[Polar Bear]

It's taken me two weeks and talking to lots of people to work this out though.  Why isn't there any explanation of the process online? 

People who have the need or feel the need to get vaccinated as quickly as possible and can travel have an extra option.  People who don't feel the need or cannot travel far with ease for whatever reason can wait for a local jab.

Just needs some dimwit to find their common sense down the back of the sofa and use it.  The back of the government's sofa must be tearing at the seams or perhaps it simply slipped down between the seats of the Lambourgini ...

[Nuncio]

Online booking now opened to those aged 56 and over.

Not for those of us in Wales yet. Judging from the figures, Wales have a slight difference of emphasis, tilting more towards 2nd doses, which would be fine by me had not my twin (in Harrogate) had hers on Satuday, and my wife (younger than me but with a minor health issue) having been invited for hers this Saturday. Not jealous.

[campagman]

Received a TXT from the GP this pm to book a Jab, great but only if the link to the booking website worked! Walked down to the GP's to point this out. They just sent me the same text again with a dodgy link. Fortunately while I was waiting outside the GP's somebody said 'just phone 119'. that's what I did and now have an appointment for next Wed.

[Gattopardo]

Hmmm, as evidenced by the 12 point lead the Tories have in the polls?

Look at the media coverage, NHS test and trace while the gov vaccine roll out.

[sojournermike]

Online booking now opened to those aged 56 and over.

Not for those of us in Wales yet. Judging from the figures, Wales have a slight difference of emphasis, tilting more towards 2nd doses, which would be fine by me had not my twin (in Harrogate) had hers on Satuday, and my wife (younger than me but with a minor health issue) having been invited for hers this Saturday. Not jealous.

The GP’s in Harrogate have worked together and run a big centre at the Yorkshire show ground - although they may lose that soon. I was vaccinated in the normal course just over 2 weeks ago, at age 55 and 4-6 weeks before I expected. My brother in law, who is a couple of years older than me, and registered with a Wetherby GP was invited to book the evening they opened it up and is travelling to York a week today. My mother in law, 87, was quite late being invited to her Wetherby GP’s practice. Mrs S was done in Bradford through her work (health).

It’s a bit of a postcode lottery I think, although they are all, presumably, doing the best they can in the local circumstances.

Mike

[hellymedic]

D received an invite for Covid vaccine in post today.
Has booked shot #1 at pharmacy just over a mile away for this Wednesday and shot #2 at pharmacy half a mile away, in May, online.
The closer pharmacy had no immediate slots.

Technology and system seem to have worked smoothly for him.

[Chris S]

Technology and system seem to have worked smoothly for him.

It did for me too. They texted me. I went. They jabbed me.

But I'm a mobile person who can pretty much be anywhere, anytime. As for many things - it's easier for me; the effort needs to be directed to those for whom it isn't so straightforward.

[hellymedic]

The pharmacy within half a mile had slots for Saturday but he chose to go a full mile to have his shot a bit sooner. It's hardly a long way anyway!

I suppose that's an advantage of being in That London.

[Regulator]

On the whole the technology is working OK (it’s an NHS managed system rather than run by the Serco crowd).  The key issues are:

- out of date GP records
- incorrect info from patients
- lack of vaccine supply


Anecdotal reports suggest local vaccination sites (e.g. GP surgeries, trust sites and pharmacies) are ‘smoother and quicker’ visits, with long waits reported at some of the ‘super hubs’. 

[Jaded]

That would make sense.

Bigger sites deal with more people.

Managing 20 people in a queue is far smoother than managing 2,000.

[Lightning Phil]

Wife booked her jabs last night.  First one is 26th March.  Both at surgery about 1.3 miles away.  Reasonable selection of local options from what I could see.  Now just need it to open up to lower 50 age groups so I can book mine. This is Hertfordshire.

[Blodwyn Pig]

Had my first jab on Saturday, but due to computer 'outage' queued up outside in freezing wind for over an hour, Sunday and Monday very tired,did 50km on 'hilda on Monday, cor blimey,  that were tuff, like riding thro treacle.

[Rod Marton]

Wife booked her jabs last night.  First one is 26th March.  Both at surgery about 1.3 miles away.  Reasonable selection of local options from what I could see.  Now just need it to open up to lower 50 age groups so I can book mine. This is Hertfordshire.

Local options? Not in Gloucestershire. Nearest I was offered was Bath.

Ended up arranging the jab in Reading, which may be further away, but I have work-related reasons for going there.

[Duckfoot1606]

Had my first AZ jab Sat am. Slight headache, dry but not sore throat and slightly off colour feeling on Sun, have felt that way a couple of times over the winter. Sore arm where the jab went in too, all pretty conventional stuff by all accounts. Mon am back to normal and back on the bike, feeling fine.

A

[Jaded]

Wife booked her jabs last night.  First one is 26th March.  Both at surgery about 1.3 miles away.  Reasonable selection of local options from what I could see.  Now just need it to open up to lower 50 age groups so I can book mine. This is Hertfordshire.

Local options? Not in Gloucestershire. Nearest I was offered was Bath.

Ended up arranging the jab in Reading, which may be further away, but I have work-related reasons for going there.

Indeed. I'm going to Bath, and Mrs J is off to Bristol, which is easier, work-wise. Considering this part of Gloucs was top in the country for 80year olds getting jabbed (or something like that), I found that lack of any places in the whole of Gloucestershire to be odd. I didn't want to go to Bromsgrove, or Basingstoke...

[Lightning Phil]

My brother who is a couple of years older than me got his first jab on 23rd Feb.  That’s in Cheshire. So it does vary by where you are.