AIBU ... to ask you to cancel your vax appointment if you don't need it

[BruceAndNosh]

Really frustrating!

I was volunteering at vax centre yesterday, all appointments.
Very busy as one vaccinator was off sick.

I was checking names off as people arrived among other duties.
The early appointments were boosters but late morning we had a couple of dozen 2nd doses booked in, and over half of them didn't turn up!
I assume that they a) forgot date of 2nd dose when they booked their 1st one 6 months before or b) had brought forward their 2nd dose and not cancelled the later appointment.

Yes, the booking system should be robust enough to avoid the latter option, but we know that it's working at full stretch.

Those slots could have been used by someone else.

It is not impossible to cancel!! I just did on Friday as I had been invited through my GP as well.

You need to choose the Manage your booking option and it will initially give you an option to reschedule. Just continue through that and it will take you through to cancel (and offer the option to rebook but obviously ignore that). I got a confirmation text and email.

@PerkingFaintly

Although could you perhaps ask MNHQ to amend the thread title, eg to "To cancel your vax appointment if you're not able to attend"?

Because I initially thought it meant, "If you're not in the highest priority of need for the vax, please don't have one."

How is that a reason to ask MNHQ to change it? 😂

My DH was ill last week when he had his booked. Not Covid but too ill to go, he couldn't work out how to cancel :P the system needs improving

I got a walk in two days before my appointment but then couldn't cancel the latter.

I wanted to cancel and rearrange mine but couldn't. It almost seemed as though part of the webpage or a button was missing when I went to manage my booking. In the end I did keep my appointment because I didn't think it was right to just not turn up but the system isn't great regardless.

I just got a letter with an appointment for my first one then rearranged the date/time as it wasn’t convenient same for the second and just booked booster for tomorrow it’s quite seamless & easy to cancel/rearrange
My my mum and step dad in England managed fine too, couldn’t get walk ins locally though.

I tried to cancel my booster yesterday because i thought i wouldn't be able to get there because of road closures. The system wouldn't let me cancel it. It told me to log back on on tomorrow i.e. today to cancel it. After the appointment. I did go in the end.

@nordica perhaps it was all working on Friday , but today it wouldn't allow rebooking.

I think most of us know how to use the website , thanks though.

I cancelled mine easily online, in fact it wouldn't let me book another until I cancelled the one I had. You just go to manage bookings online.

How do you cancel through the email? I follow the link they give, it asks for my details and I get a message saying I don’t need to book an appointment. Like so many others I’d booked a booster but managed to get seen at a walk in yesterday.

For once the Scottish system might have the edge. DH and I couldn't get appointments earlier than January. Both got walk ins yesterday. DH was told his January appointment was cancelled, I logged into NHS Inform to cancel mine and it hi also been cancelled.

The option to manage/cancel an appointment on the website doesn't work. At all. It sends you round in a loop - it's totally impossible to cancel a booked appointment if, for example, you've got a walk-in sooner. Believe me I tried on about 20 occasions.

Luckily part of the system does work and if you've had a dose at a walk-in before a booked appointment and it will update in a couple of days once your records show you've already had the dose and cancel the later appointment.

But if you can't attend a booked appointment for whatever reason, it's impossible to cancel it.

Big thanks to OP though for their work vaccinating, you are amazing

I managed fine to cancel a relative’s booster. Not hard at all.

DH couldn’t cancel his booking. I’ve had my booster but it doesn’t seem to have been registered and I am getting increasingly hysterical texts telling me to get it done. The last text told me I was at high risk from complications from Covid. I can’t get through to the surgery to tell them and e-consult just seems to go into a black hole.

@treesandweeds

I cancelled mine easily online, in fact it wouldn't let me book another until I cancelled the one I had. You just go to manage bookings online.

This, nothing to do with the email you just go back through the bookings system. I have done it twice for two relatives.

Agree it’s impossible to cancel. I didn’t attend my first booster appointment because id been in close contact with someone who tested positive and didn’t want to put the vaccinators at risk. But there was literally no way to cancel it on the website. Can’t remember what the message was now but it didn’t make sense - something about coming back on tomorrow.
I even tried phoning the pharmacy direct where I was due to have it but no one picked up.
Once the date had passed it allowed me to book another appointment but it is flawed.

I rang your cancel my fathers appointment but they still sent reminder texts and when I rang a second time the had no record of the first call of made to cancel.

I found it really easy to cancel online as long as kept booking reference, just put it in and press cancel but if lost reference its difficult.

I cancelled my booster for tomorrow easily online. I have Covid so can’t go.

I cancelled and rebooked for a month earlier really easily - it was literally rebook appointment

I tried cancelling mine via the email and via manage my booking with no success

Called 119 to let them know and was advised there was no way to cancel and I just had to not show up.

I was trying to cancel on the same day as my appt - not sure if that makes a difference as some people clearly have been able to cancel online.

I originally booked an appointment via the NHS website for January,

But then I was contacted by my GP and was able to book a slot for this week.

I logged onto the NHS website and cancelled my January appointment with no hassle at all. However, it was before the government extended the booster programme so maybe the website is just too busy now.

I accept that at the moment the booking system is overloaded, but I had booked my booster online for late November, then was offered it while working at vax centre a couple of days before, so I had it -then cancelled my appointment.

Some of these people could have tried and failed to cancel, but I suspect that some didn't bother to try

@imip

It is impossible to cancel a booked appointment! I was unable to do this both online (which is the way I booked the vaccination) and by phone (I cannot recall this one, but I made every attempt and could not cancel it). It was very frustrating as I managed a walk-in as I had one child in hospital and one at home with covid and I was trying to boost my immunity to not get covid so I could see my child (off ward). Spent a lot of time trying to work out how to cancel it also.

This. DH tried to cancel his appt, as we both had covid. Unable to cancel. You just have to no show, then re-book, which is really a crap system, even by NHS standards Now completely unable to book the booster via the app, after the four way back, but unable to get through to the doctors either. System really unfit for purpose.

Some of these people could have tried and failed to cancel, but I suspect that some didn't bother to

You may be right OP, but as the system will not let you cancel we'll never know will we