Covid Vaccination Appointments - Difficulty ??

[BRG75]

Jan and I received our invitation letters for the covid vaccination yesterday, 1st Feb.

We immediately entered ourselves onto the NHS web site, which informed us that we had to book both our first, and second appointments at the same time.

Unfortunately, having done so, the system returned “one of your appointment slots no longer available, please rebook”

An hour later, and 10 to 12 “rebooks” (and trying several other site locations) we still did not have an appointment set up.

Sometimes, as the first slot was booked, it immediately returned “ no availability for a second date, please rebook”

There is an option of phoning 119; this we did, and fairly quickly had a person to talk to.
I had hoped that this method might have a more direct link into the booking system. It doesn’t.
The lady had exactly the same problems as ourselves, and after 20 minutes or so, advised us to contact our GP’s surgery.

This morning, 2nd Feb, 6.30 to 7.00am on the web site. No appointments yet.

My thoughts are that:-
Maybe slots are released onto the system at either set times, or random times; but that within 10 minutes they are all gone.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Mike

[Steamdrivenandy]

I've got a first jab appointment at our GP's on Friday, second appointment to follow.

Mind you the appointment sort of came weirdly.

The GP's rang Mrs SDA last week to arrange her first jab. She's five years younger than me, but maybe was called as she had a lung based medical issue 15 years ago. Anyway she'd only just spoken to the GP an hour or so before, who had advised her not to have the jab yet as she'd had an anaphylactic reaction to CAT scan dye in the last few years.

She mentioned her surprise that she'd been called before me and the receptionist told her that I was on another list, but she might as well arrange mine as I was close by.

I was told to visit the surgery before the appointment to collect a letter that would be needed at the jab. I went to collect the letter yesterday but mine couldn't be found and so they printed off another one, filling in my details of appointment time as it didn't seem to appear on their schedule.

Odd!

[Rev Jules]

Originally Posted by BRG75

Jan and I received our invitation letters for the covid vaccination yesterday, 1st Feb.

We immediately entered ourselves onto the NHS web site, which informed us that we had to book both our first, and second appointments at the same time.

Unfortunately, having done so, the system returned “one of your appointment slots no longer available, please rebook”

An hour later, and 10 to 12 “rebooks” (and trying several other site locations) we still did not have an appointment set up.

Sometimes, as the first slot was booked, it immediately returned “ no availability for a second date, please rebook”

There is an option of phoning 119; this we did, and fairly quickly had a person to talk to.
I had hoped that this method might have a more direct link into the booking system. It doesn’t.
The lady had exactly the same problems as ourselves, and after 20 minutes or so, advised us to contact our GP’s surgery.

This morning, 2nd Feb, 6.30 to 7.00am on the web site. No appointments yet.

My thoughts are that:-
Maybe slots are released onto the system at either set times, or random times; but that within 10 minutes they are all gone.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Mike

We also had to book online and got an appointment within ten minutes of each other, it also gave us a date for the second one.

Rev

[another_clean_sheet]

Originally Posted by Rev Jules

We also had to book online and got an appointment within ten minutes of each other, it also gave us a date for the second one.

Rev

Ditto.
No problems at all. Booked both jabs at same time.
Went this morning and 18 mins after walking through the door at Chelmsford Racecourse I was walking back to the car park.

[Bolin]

I posted this on another thread, hope it is useful.

Some info might be helpful:

There are 3 types of places offering vaccines:

Hospital Hubs - main hospitals, not very small 'cottage' hospitals from what I gather.

Local Vaccination Service - GP practice run, sometime groups of GP practices will run theirs together from one larger surgery, or maybe even from a larger site such as a concert hall etc. Some pharmacies are in this category.

Vaccination Centres - i.e. sports ground, conference centres, cathedrals etc. This may include pharmacies as well - our local tiny pharmacy has set up as a vaccination centre in a local hall.

All vaccinations are by appointment only. You may be contacted in different ways. For Vaccination Centres you will receive a letter with links to the national booking system, which is online or by calling 119. You will receive a letter when you are in an eligible cohort i.e. over 80s, over 75s, extremely clinically vulnerable, when it is that cohort's turn to be vaccinated, AND you live within a 45 minute drive of a vaccination centre. For Local Vaccination Services you will be contacted via your GP surgery or someone/an organisation acting on their behalf. This could be by letter, telephone or text. Not sure about email. Hospital Hubs are mainly offering the jab to health and social care workers and possibly patients too. Health and social care workers should have involvement from employers to identify them and Local Authorities are supposed to play a role in this too - more info in docs online.

There may be slight oddities in the system - one example is my GP surgery, which is running the jabs with the local pharmacy in a nearby hall. They will not contact their patients directly to offer the jab, but instead patients will get the standard letter to book a Vaccination Centre, and use that to book the local pharmacy rollout at the hall. Problem there is that people living miles away can also book at the hall, leaving no priority for locals. In response the GP surgery is now texting patients when new slots are available to be booked at the hall via the national booking system so basically give a heads up that spaces are available, but others living further away can still book in there. The GP surgery will now have a local hub shared with other surgeries and invite patients for appointments but it not opening until mid-February.

Vaccination Centres may 'disappear' from the national booking system if all their current slots are booked up, and then 'reappear' when new slots are available. Slots appear to be created when VCs are allocated doses of vaccine.

There are lots of documents relating to the rollout online on gov.uk, have a search.

Hope this helps - if anyone has more useful info then please share.

[Bolin]

Also - those arranging appointments on 119 just see the same website that you can see at home, no extra information or suchlike. Basically it is for people without internet.

If whilst making your booking somebody else beats you to it by selecting the same times and confirming before you do, you have to start again.

Slots appear to be allocated to vaccination centres in tandem with slots for 12 weeks on, which can be booked at the time. A second appointment must be booked online whilst booking the first.

[J1MBO]

NHS letters arrived this afternoon.

Just booked both jabs for my good lady and me within 15 minutes of each other at a local mass vaccination centre less than 20 minutes away, the first being on Sunday, the second at the start of May.

No problems for us, NHS website spot on!

Jim

[J1MBO]

Originally Posted by J1MBO

NHS letters arrived this afternoon.

Just booked both jabs for my good lady and me within 15 minutes of each other at a local mass vaccination centre less than 20 minutes away, the first being on Sunday, the second at the start of May.

No problems for us, NHS website spot on!

Jim

The following day, 3rd February, we received a call from our local health centre offering us both a vaccination, told them we'd already booked elsewhere and was advised to keep those appointments.

Today we both had our first vaccination at Whalley Range Cricket & Tennis Club, very pleasant and organised, in and out in 30 minutes!

Jim

[Steamdrivenandy]

Had my first jab at our GP's surgery on Friday morning, in and out in 5 minutes or less.
It was the AZ version and after feeling fine for the rest of Friday, I had to admit defeat by Saturday lunchtime and retired to bed feeling out of sorts and tired. After a few hours sleep I was feeling much better by early evening and I'm back to normal today.

[SD1too]

Originally Posted by BRG75

Any advice would be gratefully received.

I wish I had the answer Mike. The NHS' appointments system is chaotic; it always has been. I am sadly not surprised to read of your frustrating experience. I'm dreading receiving my "call up" papers.

You just have to play their game because it isn't going to change for the better. Trying early in the morning was a good idea. I wish you luck and if you do manage to crack the Enigma code, do tell us all how!

Simon