Vaccination - does this seem correct?

[SillyUnMurphy]

My dad is 91 and received a letter yesterday to book his vaccine. He phoned me for help as he is not online and couldn’t keep up with the automated options on the phone (he has some hearing problems).
I went online to book a vaccine for him and the nearest centres were miles away. We’re in Essex and he has been offered a centre at the Excel in Docklands, somewhere out near Heathrow and Birmingham! I do drive and am happy to take him but there is no way he would want to travel that far and I’m also WFH and homeschooling two primary aged children - so can’t really spend a whole day attending a vaccine centre.
There is a note on the letter saying if the centres are inconvenient then wait a few days.
Am I being incredibly naive in thinking that vaccine centres would be offered that were a couple of miles away from where you live? Are there really so few centres operating at the moment that they are tens of miles from where you actually live? Has anyone else experienced this?
Many thanks for taking the time to read.

If you can, get him vaccinated. My bed bound 83 year old MIL was hospitalised with Covid on Thursday and her gp surgery rang on Saturday to offer her her vaccination- too late for her I fear.

I'd drive through the night or do whatever I had to do to get the vaccine for myself or my parents in their sixties, but for my grandmother in her eighties it's much harder. She can't go in a car for long -She has a fractured spine from osteoporosis, she needs to sit with feet up or she gets severe pain and circulatory problems, she needs toilet. She'd be at risk of contracting covid on public transport or in a service station. She is blind and a wheelchair user.
Very elderly people aren't just being lazy or difficult if they don't take the first appointment offered even with the full support of their willing relatives which OP is undoubtedly ready to give her family.

I would add, Excel is very easy to get to and park at. Just off the A13

Similar has been reported from Kent. People in the gravesend and Swanscombe areas being given appointments at the London Excel

You seem a bit fixated on why the excel is no good but you said in your op you got offered other options and that they were driveable if inconvenient so it seems a bit rude to berate people for giving opinions just because they don't validate you.

Travelling on public transport when you are highly vulnerable isn't advisable.

It's not a question of 'convenience'

That is why we need vaccination available in many places, for not everyone will be able to get safe transport to a venue 10 miles away (or in OP's case, further)

More big centres will be opening soon and most GP surgeries will be offering jabs (though not necessarily from your usual practice) before the end of next week.

This was posted by a surgery local to me (B'ham is our nearest mass vaccine centre) so I would think it would be the same in all areas that he doesn't have to go to this one & will be contacted about the clinics run by his surgery. (I've cropped the surgery name just to make it a little more anonymous, I'm aware another town name appears)

@Eyewhisker

OP - this vaccine could save your dad’s life so is surely worth the ‘inconvenience’.

If we properly used mass centres like in Israel we could vaccine the whole population much much quicker, than waiting for it to be delivered in drips and drabs to GPs. Insisting on it delivered at a ‘convenient’ location will cost lives.

It is infuriating that we have all these resrtrictions but people will reject a life-saving vaccine because it is convenient or they don’t want to travel far.

It's not just inconvenience though. There is also a risk in thousands of elderly and vulnerable people travelling miles on public transport from all over the place, where they may pick up coronavirus (or other viruses), to sit in a vaccination centre to (possibly) be given a vaccine that is being used off label. The vaccine doesn't offer immediate protection. It sounds like a giant petri dish. If I were 90, I would have concerns and probably want to delay be vaccinated until things are more organised.

What the letter doesn’t make clear is this..... the appointments at Birmingham or Edinburgh or the North Pole are not obligatory. They are simply the first available appointments.
Just say no thanks and reschedule for a convenient location. No fuss needed.

@twumptreets

I would add, Excel is very easy to get to and park at. Just off the A13

Where do you park? Every time I have been there there has been no parking available either at Excel or within walking distance - not that I would want to walk around there, it is a fast main road without real footpaths and very few pedestrian crossings.

Yes, it’s easy to get to, but there has been a concerted effort over the years to make people going to Excel use public transport. This is usually not a problem, I am happy with a couple of tube/DLR changes, but at the present time many people are reluctant to use public transport, and indeed are being advised by the Mayor and TFL not to use it.

I can’t see that hundreds, if not thousands of extra people, many of them at the moment the most vulnerable like the OPs father, crowding onto

TFL daily is a good idea.

Wow op that was rude! You stated in your op that you can drive but that it isn't convenient. I don't know why all of a sudden you are talking about public transport. No need to be rude to people answering your question that you posted!

In your op you say you do drive and you'd be happy to take him?

@Marilla1966

Ring Broomfield in Chelmsford. They are vaccinating and you can book in if over 80

Interesting. Is there a particular number as my 89 year old FIL who lives in Chelmsford is still waiting for a letter.

I live in Hampshire and would drive my parents to the excel centre for a vaccine. They have great parking - when things are normal my parents often drive in and park there 5£ for the day on a Sunday then dlr into town.

You are being unreasonable for not driving him if you are able to.

Yanbu if you cant drive.

@BernardsarenotalwaysSaints

This was posted by a surgery local to me (B'ham is our nearest mass vaccine centre) so I would think it would be the same in all areas that he doesn't have to go to this one & will be contacted about the clinics run by his surgery. (I've cropped the surgery name just to make it a little more anonymous, I'm aware another town name appears)

I’m a bit shocked by that statistic. 5 centres, each running for 12 hours non stop and they only managed to vaccinate 425 people. At that rate it’s going to take a very long time to get through 65,000,000 of us!

@Staffy1 www.mse.nhs.uk/covid-19-vaccine/

Well clearly it would be inconvenient if you don’t drive, but in Op it said she did drive and could do so (it would only be inconvenient to OP as she WFH and had two primary aged children at home - take the day off, get DP to care for children or and get down to the centre)

Give them chance.
We have seven mass vaccination centres opening this week with many more to come.
If you don’t like the offer then wait for it to come closer to you. It’s a choice

"I’m a bit shocked by that statistic. 5 centres, each running for 12 hours non stop and they only managed to vaccinate 425 people. At that rate it’s going to take a very long time to get through 65,000,000 of us!"

It wasn't 5 centres, it was 5 stations ie 5 medics giving vaccinations at the same time @viques. 85 people per station in 12 hours isn't too bad, that's 7 in an hour, one person every 8 minutes.

What concerns me about these mass centres is that they are indoors. With all that space and parking, surely some kind of drive-through or open-sided marquee would be safer for everyone. If 1 in 15 (in this area of London) have Covid-19, how is a mass indoor centre safe enough? I know it's January, but this is doable.

@viques it’s cos it would appear no one wants to travel to these large centres cos its “inconvenient”

Agreed Viques. I knew I should have cropped that but out

Will large centres not have lots more people attending and make it less safe for the elderly to be there? Of course travelling long distances can be inconvenient and uncomfortable

@lazeeboy

What concerns me about these mass centres is that they are indoors. With all that space and parking, surely some kind of drive-through or open-sided marquee would be safer for everyone. If 1 in 15 (in this area of London) have Covid-19, how is a mass indoor centre safe enough? I know it's January, but this is doable.

I think people have to be monitored after the vaccination for at least 15 mins so I imagine that would be really hard to do if lots were in cars (you couldn’t talk to them or assess them)

Problem with marquees is it would be fine in summer but I’m not sure we can be having 80+ year olds sitting around for ages in the freezing cold

Large venues would have good ventilation systems and allow space for people to be separated - I think it’s the best we have at the moment!