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Original poster

GP giving vaccine to his mate

445 replies

LoafEater · 25/01/2021 09:41

So an acquaintance of mine has told a mutual friend that his friend, who is a GP in out local area, called him up at the end of a vaccine session and invited him down to the surgery to get a 'leftover' vaccine. He went and had it, and is telling people how delighted he is about it.

This acquaintance does not really work (independently wealthy/lazy), is in his mid-50s and has no health issues. I am livid. My brother lives in a care home has not had the vaccine yet, and I know lots of other people, myself included, who are working front line jobs or have health conditions that won't be getting it for a long time yet. I see from the press today that this seems to be happening all over. I suspect, knowing this man, that this was pre-planned rather than a last minute thing.

Don't know why I'm posting this really as there is nothing that can be done about it now, but I found out about this last week and I am still so cross!

OP posts:
FiveHoursSleep · 26/01/2021 19:50

This is happening everywhere. My sMIL and FIL got vaccinated with 'left over vaccines' because their daughter is a GP and she did her husband too.
A friend has done her family and a few of her friends.
I don't think it's up to anyone to make judgements about who should get those vaccines but it's a waste if they are binned.

Ddot · 26/01/2021 19:50

angela99999
Good for you x
I dont think anybody minds if its spare.
Wish I could get one.

CrankyFrankie · 26/01/2021 19:56

I know someone in their 30s who has had it purely because she works for a private healthcare company that are working with the nhs. It didn’t even occur to me to be outraged on behalf of all the people who are more vulnerable than her. I wish we would all stop turning on each other and just wind our fecking necks in really.

beela · 26/01/2021 19:58

I don't begrudge anyone getting the vaccine. It helps all of us.

Justa47 · 26/01/2021 20:15

@Scrunchies

That’s crazy isn’t it

Nanalisa60 · 26/01/2021 20:32

I would much prefer it to be used then be thrown away, I don’t care if they go out In The street and pull the first person they see and give them the left over, it’s all has to be used!! To throw one dose away is a sin!!

saraclara · 26/01/2021 20:35

These vaccination centres are taking every ounce of resources from the local NHS and GPs surgeries - and more. While normal service is expected for routine and emergency healthcare at the same time. Everyone involved is busting a gut to get this done.

Yet half of Mumsnet seems to think there should be spare staff, spare time, and spare infrastructure to prevent three vaccines out of the many hundred delivered that day, going to the 'wrong' people.

It's just nuts. It really is.

ancientgran · 26/01/2021 20:42

@Nanalisa60

I would much prefer it to be used then be thrown away, I don’t care if they go out In The street and pull the first person they see and give them the left over, it’s all has to be used!! To throw one dose away is a sin!!
Well that has been said many times but no one is advocating throwing it away. What is wrong with making sure it goes to people in the priority groups?
ancientgran · 26/01/2021 20:43

@saraclara

These vaccination centres are taking every ounce of resources from the local NHS and GPs surgeries - and more. While normal service is expected for routine and emergency healthcare at the same time. Everyone involved is busting a gut to get this done.

Yet half of Mumsnet seems to think there should be spare staff, spare time, and spare infrastructure to prevent three vaccines out of the many hundred delivered that day, going to the 'wrong' people.

It's just nuts. It really is.

No what is nuts is not taking simple steps like someone reported earlier, sending out a text to eligible people saying first come first served.
saraclara · 26/01/2021 20:46

@ancientgran there's nothing wrong with that. But there is simply no space in a really overstretched system at this point, to find time to find the 'right' three people at the very last moment when those three vaccines are found to be left over.

It's about priorities on NHS time and resources. This is the tinest and most unimportant of of issues that people seem to want someone to be working on full time. Who are you going to take away from their normal job to do that, when the NHS is about to break?

ancientgran · 26/01/2021 20:46

@FiveHoursSleep

This is happening everywhere. My sMIL and FIL got vaccinated with 'left over vaccines' because their daughter is a GP and she did her husband too. A friend has done her family and a few of her friends. I don't think it's up to anyone to make judgements about who should get those vaccines but it's a waste if they are binned.
Well maybe put Sir Simon Stevens, head of the NHS, that he is wrong when he says it shouldn't happen.
amylou8 · 26/01/2021 20:48

The only person in the wrong here is the one who should have had the vaccine and didn't turn up. Once it's going in the bin surely any arm will do.

saraclara · 26/01/2021 20:49

No what is nuts is not taking simple steps like someone reported earlier, sending out a text to eligible people saying first come first served.

That 'simple step' would take far more time than you think. And would still end up with vaccines in the bin because people were over-optimistic about the time it would take them to get there. Or fights in the foyer because far more people turned up than there were vaccines. Seriously, I don't think you have any clue about logistics.

Celestine70 · 26/01/2021 20:58

I think a lot of this is going on tbh.

Pennycan1 · 26/01/2021 21:08

The idea about sending texts has already been tried and very swiftly binned locally. What happens when you issue an 'open' invitation is they then tell everyone they know who also turn up, the centre is overwhelmed and the police are called.

ancientgran · 26/01/2021 21:10

@saraclara

No what is nuts is not taking simple steps like someone reported earlier, sending out a text to eligible people saying first come first served.

That 'simple step' would take far more time than you think. And would still end up with vaccines in the bin because people were over-optimistic about the time it would take them to get there. Or fights in the foyer because far more people turned up than there were vaccines. Seriously, I don't think you have any clue about logistics.

Tell the places that are doing it successfully.
So sending a group text will take ages, people who can't wait to get the vaccine won't respond or too many will respond, sounds like the 3 Bears.

I actually worked very successfully in logistics for 20 years, I think maybe you are the one who hasn't a clue.

Arobase · 26/01/2021 21:15

No what is nuts is not taking simple steps like someone reported earlier, sending out a text to eligible people saying first come first served.

I started composing a post suggesting something of the sort, but realised it just wouldn't be practicable. What happens when 30 people turn up for 5 vaccines? That's 25 unnecessary and wasted journeys where the people concerned increase their risk of potential exposure to infection.

Ddot · 26/01/2021 21:24

Well its £10 for every vaccine administered that's not a bad turn over.

GetOffYourHighHorse · 26/01/2021 21:27

'I wish we would all stop turning on each other and just wind our fecking necks in really.'

Well no, I won't 'wind my fucking neck in' when my elderly parents and CEV relatives haven't been done.

For the trillionth time if they've time to ring their pals they've time to ring the people they should be ringing. Or text. It should have been organised in the months running up to rolling it out.

randomsabreuse · 26/01/2021 21:32

Realistically if they're ringing family and friends it takes far less time because the number is already in their phone, they don't have to look it up on a clunky, slow computer system (which all know when you're in a hurry and hang half in half out of a record), dial a number and hope that the person will answer a withheld or unknown number...

NotStayingIn · 26/01/2021 21:38

I'm all for them ringing friends and family but this is going to go on for many months still.

Surely quite soon they will have to come up with a better plan?

randomsabreuse · 26/01/2021 21:40

For last minute stuff I very much doubt there are much better plans to be had. I assume there already is a plan for 'early' discoveries of no shows.

NotStayingIn · 26/01/2021 21:44

But even the most popular GP will run out of family, mates or casual acquaintances in his phone book. As will everyone else on their staff. We are talking months and months here. So unless they are literally going to roam the streets, the surgeries replying on the friends/family/acquaintances method will have to think of something.

Max124 · 26/01/2021 21:50

This reply has been deleted

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Manth0914 · 26/01/2021 22:42

Would you complain if he had offered it to your brother? If not then I would just try to forget about it.

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