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?

A certain number of vaccines have been delivered to our ccg. They are in large numbers so all the over 80s who are mobile enough to get to the centre are being rung in alphabetical order and several hundred have had their doses this week. Ideally care homes would have been first but the logistics ( fridges etc) don't work for this however within the next week or two we are expecting small batches to be delivered and the care homes to start. Care home staff and doctors and nurses , HCAs etc are starting to be vaccinated tomorrow. It has been a fantastic start locally imo . When the Oxford vaccine is available , delivery will be much easier although the numbers of people will be huge and large venues, loads of staff etc will need to be recruited.at the moment everyone is just trying their best to use every single vaccine in the best way possible for the community.

@Plussizejumpsuit How much time do you think it would take to review all 80 + people and their long term health conditions to work out a priority order? not too long as over 80s who are CEV are in the shielding list they could have used that! My mum is over 80 and also CEV no sign of a vaccine yet.

They aren't being done in age order, just randomly over 80s. They only started on Tuesday so very very early days. You get very short notice of an app. We are phoning round those who don't have a mobile and it's very slow. Each phone call is taking around 5 mins.

@Museumland

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.

If you saw my 82-year old mother you wouldn’t know that she has blood cancer. She looks very fit and indeed is. But her immune system is compromised.

Oblomov I'd be really surprised if any GP surgeries at all had a minus 70 freezer! It's hardly standard kit.
It's the kind of thing you'd have in a research lab.

I believe that after it's out of minus 70 you have max 5 days to use it so by the time you have distributed it around the country that isn't long.

ABUHB seem to only be giving it to healthcare staff so far and not through GPs to over 80s yet. This is anecdotal from health care workers I know in the hospital.

The planning for how it was to be done, should have been done months ago.

How could that have been done when we didn’t know until a few weeks ago:

What vaccine would be licensed
How it would be stored
How it needed to be administered (reconstitution, refrigeration, stability and efficacy over time)
How it would be given
How it would be administered re dosing schedule
Who would be eligible based on clinical trials

I think given the limitations we’re doing pretty well. It’s a mammoth task.

North east here and my mum has been giving them for 3 days now. I believe their surgery has around 90,000 doses which they’re hoping to get done all before Christmas. They’re working 12 hours a day to get through as many people as possible.

Sidge, we have many people who have organised and controlled and planned such things before. Huge events, vaccines.
Yes they didn't know the finer details, but they have some idea, some basics.
I still believe planning could have and should have been done, as soon as they knew a vaccine was required.

The planning for how it was to be done, should have been done months ago.

I think the mass flu vaccination, with many more people than usual having the jab, was a trial run in some ways. Three gp practices that I know of had three different ways of getting people in for the jab. They'll have been able to see which worked best.

But as pp said, at that time they didn't know that the Pfizer vaccine, with its very specific storage requirements, would be the first to be approved.

DH has 6 'Grandparents' (one couple divorced and remarried). All over 80, 4 have mild health conditions, 1 has severe cancer and dementia, 1 has the health of a 50 year old. The healthiest one got his jab on Thursday. The others havent even had contact about theirs. Its definitely a form of lotto/random generator as opposed to risk or health. They live in Worcestershire and Bristol.

Oblomov20 sorry but it’s not comparable. I’ve been organising annual flu vaccine clinics for donkeys years and it’s not anywhere near the same as this. Of course there are some similar issues, which we can manage more easily, but a lot of it just isn’t comparable.

We didn’t even know what vaccine we were getting until a few weeks ago!

And we can’t deliver it individually, it’s having to be done collaboratively. That adds another layer of complication. And we need all that boring stuff like legal indemnity cover, PGDs, training, storage, PPE, supplies, location booking, capacity, written information, delivery schedules, staffing availability etc. All whilst we try and deliver our usual service in the winter as well as playing catch up from across the year.

Not so easy to plan until you know which vaccine you are offering and which conditions it needs to be kept in, and how many doses will be arriving when.

@VanGoghsDog

what are you supposed to do if your relative has hearing problems or mild dementia and you think they will miss or misunderstand a call?

What do you usually do? They must need to get information on other things, in other ways. Is there a carer, are they part of the district nurse rounds?

But I expect each CCG is treating things differently, so ask them how they are managing the process for people who have impaired hearing and cognitive function.

Well something like the flu jab a letter comes through I think. And I can call and help arrange appointments with the GP.

My whole point was that in this case there is no one to contact and the GP doesn't seem to know anything about it.

And how does one go about contacting the CCG when no one will give you any contact details? I tried one number and it went straight to a voice mail and said the mail box was full.

@user1539506092

Posted too soon! Walk ins for over 80@s at Kings College Hospital 02032999844

Thank you. Do you have a webpage for that? Just called and they didn't answer probably because of the time.

Birmimgham here ~ MIL 81 had a call today she is booked in this Sunday for hers. I work in a bank and several of our elderly customers have either already had it this week or are having calls to book but seems they are being sent to medical centres sometimes several miles away and not their usual GP and some are unable to get there alone.

My dad 86 got a call yesterday from gp and got it same afternoon. It was in a church hall 30min drive away. Luckily he could drive himself, there as don't think there was an alternative option. So relieved he has had the first one.

Hope my mum gets a call soon (bit younger and had to shield)

Patience. There are tons of logistics that go in that is not easy to handle. It was impossible to make a all of plan since there were a lot of question marks regarding the schedule and how many vaccinations were available and what were the requirements. Health officials made reccomendations early on what equipment is needed for the vaccine. When the vaccination was officially out they updated the reccomendations. Everyone in the world had to re-order some stuff at the same time creating some delivery difficulties.

Not many countries have received any vaccinations yet and everyone is working very hard to get the vaccine out and to inform people. Nobody is keeping quiet just for fun, there are just a lot that goes into something like this

I work in a surgery, we have mostly got our information through the media at the same time as everyone else. We haven't had much chance to plan seeing as we have only just found out which vaccine we would be giving. We get told about 3 days before a delivery and we then have to ring about 300 patients to invite them in. We have been going in and doing this at the weekend. The list is ordered by age, but if a phone isn't answered, we just move on to the next one. We will contact everyone eventually but this is all so time consuming for surgery staff. We don't have any extra help or resources and still have to run the surgery as usual. The vaccine is only delivered to a Primary Care Network (group of surgeries) so the chances are it won't be your usual practice. Fortunately the vast majority of patients we have contacted have been very happy and grateful. I would love to try and be more organised but it is just coming at us with minimal notice. It's nothing like running a flu clinic.

My 89 year old mum had hers on 11th December (Midlands care home).

FFS!
You know that the health cords are putting out practically hourly social media updates? One of them being “for the love of god don’t ring your GP, chemist or us asking when”. Every call and compliant takes away someone from booking in a orients to get vaccinated. Why the fuck are you so special?

North West Lancs here - mum (88) was done Wednesday, neighbour (86) Thursday, and FIL (87) went this afternoon. Very efficient at the venues they attended. We are happy it's happening so quickly.

I work in a care home and none of the residents or staff have had there's yet and we suppose to be top priority

I received a text asking if DM wanted vaccine (I’m her POA health as well as finance)
Texted back yes
Received reply with number to book appointment
Vaccine being offered in her area over 3 days
I chose convenient appointment which was today - took her - next shot in 3 weeks
My NDN (different district to DM) exactly same system - is having first shot tomorrow

Greater Manchester here, my gran is 89 and is having hers on Sunday, her friends from the same surgery got a text but she has no mobile so my step dad rang the surgery and they seemed to conjure up an appointment on the spot.