To think that the over 80’s Covid Vaccine is slow to materialise?

[Mincepie5]

I phoned the GP who signposted me to the local health board who signposted me to the GP again. No one seemed to know anything about a vaccination programme. I have emailed the local government and had a reply to thank me for my email that will usually be responded to in 15 days! Anyone in South Wales Aneurin Bevan area know what is going on with regards to this?

My parents are in London both in their 90's and one is clinically vulnerable in my mind it's hard to see fit and sprightly 80 year olds on TV getting the vaccine. I mistakenly thought once in the over 80s the older in that group would take priority but that isn't the case and I just have to appreciate that itis a massive task to undertake and GPs and hospitals have a huge amount to organise.

Give us a chance. It’s a logistical nightmare delivering this vaccination programme as the vaccine is unstable, they’re not single units and has very unusual storage, refrigeration and mixing requirements.

We can’t deliver it in individual surgeries as we don’t have the capacity to socially distance, monitor patients afterwards for the required 15 minutes whilst maintaining social distancing, as well as continuing our usual GP surgery provision.

We’re delivering it across a PCN collaboratively, which requires staff to work outwith their usual place of work, as overtime (so as to not impact on primary care provision) and be quickly trained and brought up to speed with the very unusual vaccine requirements.

Booking patients is time consuming and challenging, and numbers are carefully controlled across those PCNs to manage vaccine availability. We don’t want elderly patients turning up for a vaccine that isn’t available, especially as the weather is bad and we’re having to use outdoor spaces to manage throughput and post vaccine observation. We certainly don’t want people turning up ad hoc with the expectation they can have the vaccine on a walk in basis.

I’m immensely proud of my colleagues and find these threads so demoralising. If you had any idea of the logistics involved and the sheer complexity of this vaccine and the delivering of it, you’d cut us a bit of slack. We WILL get your elderly relatives vaccinated, just give us time. And even once vaccinated it’s not like you can throw all caution to the wind.

I don’t think people are complaining or moaning particularly. They understand it’s difficult but they just want to understand why it seems to be different in different parts of the country, for example.

DM having hers tomorrow

My mum, aged 82, had hers today. She's in Buckinghamshire.

She was phoned yesterday morning and asked to come in today.

The clinic was very busy - in a socially distanced way.

@daisypond

I don’t think people are complaining or moaning particularly. They understand it’s difficult but they just want to understand why it seems to be different in different parts of the country, for example.

Exactly. We've seen mil a handful of times through a thick perspex screen. Its gut wrenching. The vaccination is a glimmer of hope that just seems out of reach for her. Communication is everything yet our health authority is saying nothing.

I can’t speak for all areas obviously but the delivery of the vaccine is done centrally by PHE, so your locality might genuinely not be able to tell you much! We had an issue locally where a delivery arrived 24 hours earlier than expected, so a whole clinic had to be rearranged at very short notice.

Add in that the information is changing daily (hourly on some days 🙄) it’s really difficult to keep people as informed as we would like. I do understand how frustrating it is though.

South Yorks both grandparents had today 87 and 80.

As far as I know there are only just under 800,000 doses in the country.

And 3.2 million over 80s.

So it's going to take a while...

@Sidge

Thanks for putting across your side of the story. I’m sure you’re all working really hard

@daisypond

I don’t think people are complaining or moaning particularly. They understand it’s difficult but they just want to understand why it seems to be different in different parts of the country, for example.

Shipping things in liquid nitrogen causes lots of issues as it boils off.

So everything will need to be provisioned for storage etc you can't just park it in warehouse overnight if it turns up early

Friend is having hers Sunday and her husband,she is 76,he is 82,they decided to do them both together.West Midlands.

That's interesting 480, FIL had his this week (83) but MIL (76) has to wait. West Mids too.

FIL (90 in January) had his first jab today.
There are many over 80s do I think you are being a bit impatient

Doesn't seem to be much sign of it at all in my area in SE England as far as I can gather.

Just have to be patient.

Slightly off topic, but did it irritate anyone else to see Matt Hancock on TV pretending to weep while watching the first couple of people have their jabs, and then declaring that it makes him proud to be British.

Surely he isn't trying to imply that Britain had any part in developing and producing this vaccine?

Tried phoning my mother's gp but they knew little about it. She is in her 90s and deaf so could easily not be able to hear a call properly. I can't imagine she's the only one with that problem in the target age group.

It’s different in different parts of the country because of logistical challenges related to delivery of a vaccine which requires to be kept at extremely low temperatures and has a limited time in which it can be used once removed from that. Add in local differences in infrastructure, staffing and population demographics and it’s not that hard to see why it cannot be uniform across the country.

For example, if you live in a city with a hospital which has storage facilities and the vaccine can be delivered to your local vaccination centre, it’s going to be easier to provide at scale than if you live some distance from a hospital and the transportation times have to be factored in, which reduces the number of vaccines that can be done. E.g. if vaccine is only stable for 4 hours once removed from freezer and you have 45 minutes transport time, plus 10-15 minutes to get it into the transportation vehicle, and then same at other end to get it into the building/set up, then you’ve lost 1 and 1/4 hours- over a quarter of the time window you have. This means far fewer can be vaccinated in each session in those circumstances. If a full vial cannot be used within the timeframe allowed then vaccine is wasted.

The plan was for care home residents to be vaccinated first- but practically, it’s proving time consuming (for reasons outlined above).

3.2 million people to vaccinate who are over 80. If all of them phone their GP (and the health board etc) for say 5 minutes that will consume 1500 days worth of NHS time (that’s 24 hour days) 4500 working days. Isn’t it better to have patience? We might have to put up with uncertainty for a while and accept last minute arrangements (it’s not as though there is a lot else going on for that age group right now). My PIL got one day’s notice and got their vaccinations a couple of days ago in the NW of England. They are really pleased about it.

Nitgel and daisypond. This is the thing, I’m not complaining. It’s just the fact that the health authority are saying nothing. Communication would be everything right now.

I think the health authorities' time is better off spent planning the roll out right now, rather than satisfying random people's curiosity tbh. You want to know what's going on but do you need to know right now?

I don’t understand why the health authority haven’t at least put a statement on their website explaining their plan. No one would need to phone them to ask. I’m surely not just some random person asking. There must be more people who would like to know.

@Sidge

Give us a chance. It’s a logistical nightmare delivering this vaccination programme as the vaccine is unstable, they’re not single units and has very unusual storage, refrigeration and mixing requirements.

We can’t deliver it in individual surgeries as we don’t have the capacity to socially distance, monitor patients afterwards for the required 15 minutes whilst maintaining social distancing, as well as continuing our usual GP surgery provision.

We’re delivering it across a PCN collaboratively, which requires staff to work outwith their usual place of work, as overtime (so as to not impact on primary care provision) and be quickly trained and brought up to speed with the very unusual vaccine requirements.

Booking patients is time consuming and challenging, and numbers are carefully controlled across those PCNs to manage vaccine availability. We don’t want elderly patients turning up for a vaccine that isn’t available, especially as the weather is bad and we’re having to use outdoor spaces to manage throughput and post vaccine observation. We certainly don’t want people turning up ad hoc with the expectation they can have the vaccine on a walk in basis.

I’m immensely proud of my colleagues and find these threads so demoralising. If you had any idea of the logistics involved and the sheer complexity of this vaccine and the delivering of it, you’d cut us a bit of slack. We WILL get your elderly relatives vaccinated, just give us time. And even once vaccinated it’s not like you can throw all caution to the wind.

If I could 'LIKE' any post it would be this ⬆️⬆️⬆️

@sidge I agree 100% and I'm super impressed at how well the programme is going. One of my grandparents has already been contacted by their GP to book the vaccination slot for next week. The other hasn't heard anything yet (both are late 80s in Liverpool). Tbh, as neither has underlying health concerns and both live in their own homes I wasn't expecting them to be done until Jan.

Well done and thanks to everyone involved in the roll out!

@Mincepie5

I don’t understand why the health authority haven’t at least put a statement on their website explaining their plan. No one would need to phone them to ask. I’m surely not just some random person asking. There must be more people who would like to know.

Exactly. I know now why there is a delay but shouldn't have to go on mn to find out. My dads surgery could have information reflecting this. Surely that's not too much to ask for.

@Porcupineinwaiting

I think the health authorities' time is better off spent planning the roll out right now, rather than satisfying random people's curiosity tbh. You want to know what's going on but do you need to know right now?

I take offence at that I am not ' curious'. I am worried about my relatives and am acting on their behalf as they are relying on me to do so. I would hope others are doing the same for their over 90s friends and relatives. The Gov haven't exactly guided us well through this.