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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be very cross at the surgery regarding 8 week immunisations.

56 replies

CornishPasties · 05/02/2020 14:51

I went this morning to have my 8 week postnatal check up and for my DS to have his first set of immunisations. After waiting 2 hours after my initial appointment time which with a small baby was pretty frustrating I had my appointment and all was fine. I was then led through to the nurses room to sort out the immunisations to be told they could not do them as he is not 8 weeks until tomorrow! At no point did anyone inform me of this problem in the time I was waiting and nor did they contact me to change the date before I arrived despite the letter for the appointments arriving 2 weeks ago.

This is all very annoying but the thing that's really pissed me off is that instead of admitting a mistake they told me I should have double checked as he wasnt going to be 8 weeks and it was my fault for not querying the appointment date. They then informed me it had wasted an appointment and to make sure in future baby was old enough!

Am I unreasonable to be thoroughly pissed off at their attitude? Also would it have actually mattered if he'd of had the jabs today or can he really only have them once he is 8 weeks old?

OP posts:
Original poster
CornishPasties · 05/02/2020 20:21

Im surprised they booked you in. My practice has always double checked dob when I’ve called to book the jabs

Thats half my frustration with them as it was the surgery who booked it, they wouldnt let me book an apointment. Which makes it even more annoying as you would think they would know to only book an apointment when baby was over 8 weeks.

someone else has probably had a far worse morning.

Im hoping it was nothing major causing the delay but I appreciate I have no way of knowing what was happening behind the scenes. However you are right thats a good way of looking at it and it puts it into perspective. Lets just hope its not as busy when we go back.

OP posts:
FuzzyAtmosphere · 05/02/2020 20:25

It sounds like you could have been given better information. Where I am we are told not to book vaccinations early as they won’t do them. It’s a shame that’s not standard for all new parents.

Coffeenofilter · 05/02/2020 20:34

Has this been the rule for long, does anyone know? Mine had the 8 week jabs at 6 and a bit weeks... but that was 4 years ago, so maybe now they are more strict?

(Had jabs early as we had to leave the country for complicated Visa reasons, but we were back again in time for the 12 week ones. I didn't want to travel to my home country with an unvaccinated child, so maybe they made a special allowance because of our circumstances? Home country isn't known for its sanitation...)

anon2000000000 · 05/02/2020 20:59

My dd had them 2 days before she turned 8 weeks.

Mlou32 · 05/02/2020 21:01

I totally your frustration. Maybe it would help to think about the person who had the emergency and made them run so late. I had to wait a hour and a half at my surgery yesterday for my nurse appointment. Turns out some poor sod had some serious emergency and the nurse had to deal with it, causing all her appointments to be late. I find it helps to think how lucky we are when we run into minor inconveniences.

I hope your next appointment goes a bit more smoothly op x

Dan68 · 05/02/2020 21:02

Where I am (Scotland) the GP practice takes nothing to do with immunisation appointments, they are automatically sent out by Child Health, not sure what the system is in England. We also have a specific immunisation team made up of nurses who do nothing but immunise now so they’re very specialist and knowledgable.

opticaldelusion · 05/02/2020 21:07

I was nearly turned away from the surgery when I took my baby for his first set of jabs. They had no record of him despite my registering him and seeing the GP two weeks previously.

Took a while before I realised I'd got his name wrong so the receptionist couldn't find his notes. How we laughed.

Sh05 · 05/02/2020 21:10

You were very patient to wait that long with a tiny baby. I start having a silent panic after 15 minutes of waiting past the appointment time that lo Will start screaming.
So is it the same rule between jabs as well? My lo has just had her third set yesterday. 3 weeks in a row our appointment was cancelled by the surgery, so instead of 4 months she is almost 5 months old.

viix · 05/02/2020 21:14

@Mlou32 Being a nurse in a GP surgery myself it’s always nice to see people who appreciate why we run late sometimes

Also agree with previous posters who said baby imms given under PGD so unfortunately we are unable to give them early

HeyMac · 05/02/2020 21:17

I'm in Scotland. There's a central immunisations team that comes out to do any immunisations. Totally useless if you have a query before hand as GP surgery won't answer questions and there isn't any contact details for the immunisation team.

didireallysaythat · 05/02/2020 21:18

The booking line at my GP was never too clear about dates - they told me to make an appointment and then on the day the nurse would be able to work out if she/he could give the immunisation or not. Seemed like a weird way to work. And then when I went back to work they would only do immunisations between 11-12 on Thursdays. On that occasion speaking to the practise manager sorted things out. I can't help helping that you could be discharged from the maternity ward with a schedule for when these things are due. ...

Howdidido · 05/02/2020 21:19

Interesting to read from nurses. We had my DDs jabs at 7 weeks and 2 days. No one questioned it or said she shouldn't have. I'm a big worried now that was a terrible idea! @cptartapp @waterbottle12 are you saying they shouldn't have done them?

Mlou32 · 05/02/2020 21:26

@howdidido PGD's are trust dependant I believe so it may vary from trust to trust. I could be wrong though, I'm only familiar with my own trusts polices.

PawPatrolMakesMeDrink · 05/02/2020 21:28

@Coffeenofilter yes we can administer out of the PGD for health reasons, within reason but that would be done off licence and would require signing off by a GP so that we were administering on a patient specific basis.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 05/02/2020 21:30

Another example of NHS admin wasting everybody’s time, including their own - and for high they like to blame pati

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 05/02/2020 21:31

...for which they like to blame patients.

Coffeenofilter · 05/02/2020 21:33

@PawPatrolMakesMeDrink Thanks for explaining! Presumably that's what they did for us (I was in too much of a post-birth, pre-travel daze to really question what was happening!).

PawPatrolMakesMeDrink · 05/02/2020 21:34

Or maybe they made a mistake? Fuck knows I do. And the majority of admin staff at my surgery are hard working and there for the patients. Yes I get that there are arseholes everywhere.

My clinic has run behind today as I was attempting to discuss unexplained vaginal bleeding from a non English asylum seeker. Damn right I ran behind because she needed my bloody time. Ugh.

PawPatrolMakesMeDrink · 05/02/2020 21:35

No worries @Coffeenofilter

Skigal86 · 05/02/2020 21:35

Can I pick the brains of those of you who are nurses please? I called my surgery a few weeks ago to book my daughters 1 year jabs and they gave me an appointment 10 days before her birthday, am I going to be in the same situation as the OP? I did ask and they said it was fine, but this has got me worrying!

PawPatrolMakesMeDrink · 05/02/2020 21:40

@skigal86 I wouldn’t immunise her as my PGD states from 12 months.

BlimeyCalmDown · 05/02/2020 21:54

They can't give them before 8wks, the fault lies with the person booking them, complain to the pracice manager in writing/email and then to PALS if that isn't satisfactory

waterbottle12 · 05/02/2020 21:55

@Howdidido no don't worry, no medical reason not to give. It's that giving them before 8w is outside the licence of the vaccine and so it is unlicensed. In the very unlikely event of a proven vaccine reaction and a lawsuit, we would take all the responsibility, with none going to the vaccine manufacturer, and our indemnity provider might not cover us.

Howdidido · 05/02/2020 22:42

@waterbottle12
Thanks. That's really helpful
Do you think its worthwhile alerting the practice?
(Sorry for hijacking the thread!)

cptartapp · 06/02/2020 16:59

skigal nope I wouldn't immunise her either, 12 months onwards