Any advice to request vaccine ASAP

[Bessica1970]

Please let me start by saying I am not wanting to jump ahead of the elderly, but please bear with me. We have been told that ECV can be invited now for the vaccine and I’m ECV.
We’ve also been told not to phone drs (and recorded message on dr website states they will not discuss vaccine appointments). Does anyone know how I can flag to the powers that be that I am working each day with students face to face in school, so that I can at least be one of the first ECV to be called?
To be clear I have chosen to continue working as I’m a Head of Year and feel that my vulnerable students need me. I could work from home, but I fought to be allowed in.
I’m really asking I suppose, I’d there a way of talking to a real person to explain my situation?
If you don’t want to give details on here because ransoms might decide to follow your tips too I understand.
I do not want to skip ahead of the higher groups - but would really like to be early in my group.

@Helspopje

And please don’t think vaccinating will mean you don’t need to shield any longer, it won’t.

I don’t understand this. Surely when she’s had two doses of the vaccine and waited an appropriate time afterwards, she can stop shielding and follow the national guidance?

As a HCP we've been advised we can email our GP from our work email address to be added onto their emergency list so that if they have any vaccines left at the end of a session they can email/call us to receive it at the end of the day. I see no reason why you can't email your own practice to see if this is a possibility based on your circumstances

If you have a health condition where you see a consultant or specialist nurse perhaps phone and ask their advice.

It's all very well saying wait your turn but I know that my (shitly organised) GP practice regularly forgets to offer me the annual flu jab despite it being a condition of my treatment for a chronic illness which they are aware of - this is because my hospital directly prescribes my treatment, due to its nature and therefore it's not on the GPs immediate list, as it's just in my clinic letters (it should be but their system is flawed)

I wrote them an email to make sure my details including meds were up to date and am following the local schedule closely (my DH is a dr who is vaccinating at the hospital so will be to tell me roughly when I should get contacted)

Our practice website just says wait your turn. Is it worth emailing anyway? Or will it just annoy them?

Tbh everyone has a ' case' as to why they should be the first within their group to receive it. My dh is CEV , I'm classed as vulnerable plus I'm his carer but I will be two groups below him . Perhaps I should receive mine at the same time as him ?

If you are ECV, working face to face with students it might be possible for your school to request your GP?
Or ask GP for a sick letter that might flag up the urgency.

The CEV are now being called in many areas (all of the first 4 priorities can now be done)

It won't be much longer now until your first shot.

But remember you are not protected at all in the first 2-3 weeks, and full protection won't be until 2-3 weeks after the second shot.

So if you can alter your work, then do so. Shielding is active at the moment - have you followed any of the steps for those who cannot WFH? 3

@Lemons1571
I didn't ask when I'd get it, just made sure my details were up to date so they would be reminded what priority group I was in.

@muddledmidget

As a HCP we've been advised we can email our GP from our work email address to be added onto their emergency list so that if they have any vaccines left at the end of a session they can email/call us to receive it at the end of the day. I see no reason why you can't email your own practice to see if this is a possibility based on your circumstances

I didn’t know this.

There will be winners and losers in the finer detail of the pecking order. I will get an early vaccine as CV due to BMI 40+. Except I’ve lost loads of weight and probably won’t even be obese by the time it gets round to me. I have told the gp on the phone but they won’t have it. Apparently they “can’t downgrade my BMI on my medical records until they see me in person, they don’t want to see me in person right now, and anyway most people regain all the weight so there’s no point in prematurely altering my BMI 40 status”. So I gave up.🤷🏼‍♀️

@TreacleHart - there is some discussion about prioritising the immediate household of the CEV (as it's possible that some co-morbidities might mean a suboptimal vaccine response, and this is a way to buttress protection around them).

But there's no chance of this happening unless/until they determine that the vaccine prevents transmission.

Sorry you wait your turn like everyone else

Rock and a hard place I'm afraid. To an outsider looking in you can't be that worried about it if you have had the option to work from home and refused it. I know students are vulnerable, but there are other staff here that would pick up the serious safeguarding slack. If you were that concerned about the virus you wouldn't be there as you had the choice. I was on long-term supply and haven't worked since March because I am CEV and will not go in and put myself in that situation. You'd have had to drug me to get me beck in there the state of the secondary schools.

I can't imagine them altering their lists to give you a priority slot when you say you are worried but your actions say otherwise.

For what it's worth, I absolutely think that teachers should have been prioritised in the rollout, but if are CEV are being vaccinated now which they are, you'll have it in the next few weeks so hopefully not too much exposure left before you have your vaccine.

I got called up today as a reserve list when they had some left over, so hopefully your surgery will do the same for CEV patients.

There are still almost half of over 80's still to be vaccinated, I think about 40 percent in care homes, carers some NHS all before you OP. In some areas where the above have been vaccinated then they are moving on to over 70's and ECV. Do you live in an area where the first groups are all vaccinated yet? If so you could write to your GP flagging up you are CEV but they will already know this. If you live in part of country where top groups are still bring vaccinated then you will have to wait a bit longer. I think mid Feb was target date for top groups so maybe end of Feb for you.

@mascarponeandwine because us as mere mortals are obviously incapable of standing on a scale and telling them the number that flashes up. Ridiculous. But well done on your weight loss. :)

Hi, I'm a GP in a relatively small GP practice. We had 800 calls on Monday (3 receptionists managed to answer about 350 of these) and the vast vast majority wanted to know when their vaccine was and if they could get it earlier/ be higher up the queue. We have since recorded a message saying we cannot re-prioritise. The staff nearly went under that day and people needing actual appointments were unable to get through. Please just wait your turn.

No just wait your turn like everyone else. You’ve been put in a stage already by your GP Surgery, just wait to be called. Every man and his dog keeping ringing up saying why they are more important etc! Please leave the surgeries to get on with sorting out actually booking appointments rather than dealing with stupid queries and we might all get done a bit faster!!!

I think you should be prioritised OP, and it really pisses me off that I now know 3 NHS admin staff, under 50, non-patient facing, working from home who have had the vaccine - 2 of them have had covid! (were deniers) and 5 NHS Trust IT workers, 3 under 50, also working from home, who have had the vaccine. 2 have dates for second dose. Teachers should be prioritised above all these people who aren't patient-facing so we can get this generation of children, who have already lost out on so much, back to school and teachers protected.

Thank you for the useful advice all.
I do have a consultant, so might contact them. I’ll also write a letter to my GP making myself available at short notice.
I am on the shielding list for those who asked, and yes I understand that I chose to not shield (the letter does say that it’s not compulsory, but recommended).
Thank you AlexaShutUp for your kind words.
I absolutely don’t think that I am more ‘deserving’ or special - I did try to make that clear in my OP.
I also don’t want to make more work for anyone which is why I haven’t been pestering my drs.
Thank you for those with clinical knowledge who shared how things are being done in your area.

OP the vaccine only makes a small difference, you still need to shield and use ppe as before. Stats only pick up after 2nd dose so really not a solution at the moment. Please shield as much as you can.

The head of a&e at our local hospital hasn't had a vaccine yet, nor have half his staff. I don't know what ECV is either.

Lucieintheskye - I didn’t ask you as it happens and I would never tell a random person on the internet to fuck off. That was unnecessary and uncalled for.

ECV = extremely clinically vulnerable - aka shielding - people in category 4

The people WFH I am referring to are WFH because they can - because they are normal office workers - not because they are shielding.

Head of A&E needs to have a word - NHS admin staff working at home are being vaccinated now in our trust, and a London trust I am working with (the IT workers)

I had no intention of phoning my gp to take up their time after hearing their messages (I had phoned to give them my bp readings) so those who assume I would be doing that have misunderstood.